Professor G. Maspero's "The Struggle of the Nations." This is a companion volume to "The Dawn of Civilization" by the same author, and contains the history of the ancient peoples of the East from the twentyfourth to the ninth century before our era. It includes the sojourn of the children of Israel in Egypt and shows the historic connection between Egypt and Syria during the centuries immediately following the Exodus. It is He caught at the ivy. . . . and he tried hard to keep his feet upon the devoted to Ancient Greek Literature and is written by Professor G. G. A. Murray, of the University of Glasgow. Other volumes will Other volumes will soon follow on French Literature, by Edward Dowden ; on English Literature, by Mr. Gosse, and on American, Italian, Japanese, Modern Scandinavian, Spanish, and Sanskrit, by various authors. An important work immediately forthcoming from the press of the Appletons is based on the results of the most recent investigations in the field of Egyptian and Oriental archæology, and contains a map, three colored plates and over four hundred illustrations. Another Appleton book of archæological interest, to appear in December, is entitled" Prehistoric Man and Beast, and is from the pen of the Rev. H. N. Hutchinson, the author of "Extinct Monsters and "Creatures of Other Days." The keynote of the book is struck in the following extract from advance sheets of the author's preface: " Starting from the evolutionist's standpoint, and regarding man as an offshoot from some at present unknown branch of the tree of life, we proceed to the task before us, which is to endeavor to bring back historic man from the dim vista of the past and to tell of his manner of life from his deeds as registered by solid and sound facts. . . . Every deed done, every weapon or utensil made, every ornament designed, is but an expression of thought and hence, if we can but interpret his implements, utensils, etc., his tombs, mounds, monuments, and rock shelters, we shall find ourselves in possession of a most valuable record, more safe in some ways than any written documents." A year ago there appeared an attractive book on bird life entitled "The Bird's Calendar," which studied the various birds in the order of their appearance during the year. The author of that book, Mr. H. E. Parkhurst, has completed a new volume to be published early in the new year. It is called "Songbirds and Waterfowl," and it discourses pleasantly on the appearance, habits, and haunts of both land and water birds. Mr. Parkhurst's love of nature and his faculty for clothing his impressions in attractive literary garb give him a sort of fellowship with Thoreau, Burroughs and W. H. Gibson, while his books have a distinctly practical and informing side which make them useful to the naturalist as well as entertaining to the general reader. The book will be published by the Scribners. The same firm have in press a new volume in the popular series of "Famous Women of the French Court" translated from the French of Imbert de Saint-Amand. It is entitled "Louis Napoleon and Mademoiselle de Montijo" and is the first volume in a new series devoted to the Court of Napoleon III. and the second French Empire, the centre of interest being the engaging personality of the Empress Eugenie. The Macmillans will issue in December a handsome edition of Washington Irving's "Alhambra " with many illustrations by Joseph Pennell. These illustrations are the result of a special trip to Spain. Some of these illustrations have appeared in the Century Magazine but the majority of the pictures are published for the first time in this edition of the Alhambra. There will be a handsome large paper edition, limited to two hundred and fifty copies, and for this a special set of the illustrations will be printed in a larger size than in the regular edition. There is a notable harmony of artist and subject in this work and great things are expected of it.. We shall soon have a new romance from the pen of Anna Katharine Green. It will be called "That Affair Next Door," a title suggestive of all the mystery in the world-and with the title comes the assurance of the publishers that the story is equal in plot construction and thrilling incident to any work that this clever writer has done. The manuscript is now in the hands of the Putnams, who will publish it either in December or in January. It may interest the curious to know that Anna Katharine Green writes her stories in pencil on a manilla pad of paper, and that her handwriting is exceedingly plain and readable. A superficial glance at her manuscript affords evi The name in the bark. dence of the care she takes in pol- Henry T. Coates and Company. ishing up her stories. Changes and corrections are made by carefully erasing and rewriting the penciled sentences. Her new story will be published complete in book form without previous serial issue, and a large edition of it will be printed to meet the great demand that now always awaits a work from her pen. The Putnams will also publish soon a new story by Grace Denio Litchfield, a novel of Washington life entitled "In the Crucible"; From "Elinor Belden; or, The Stepbrothers." duced before the close of the season at Daly's Theatre with Ada Rehan in the principal role. W. D. M. Herbert Spencer never accepts a college degree nor any other honorary trade-mark from any society. He wants to stand wholly on his own merits or be forgotten. Great Thoughts. CHICAGO ITEMS. Mrs. CHICAGO, November 10, 1896. Several of the Chicago writers think of relinquishing, for a season, the invigorating stimulus of this literary atmosphere. Lindon W. Bates is already on the other side of the water, where she has been spreading the fame and analyzing the achievements of the women of the West. Fortunately they are safe in her hands; she is too much a part of them to be satirical. And there is a chance for the benighted citizens of other lands to gain some further information on this absorbing subject. I have heard a rumor which credits Miss Lilian Bell with the intention of spending many months abroad, encouraged to such wandering by a long contract with the Ladies' Home Journal. Mr. Henry B. Fuller is another delinquent, for he contemplates spending the winter in Palermo. He means merely to rest and refresh his mind, but the law of contrasts may force him to realism and energy in such placid, dream-laden surroundings. It was not in the clear sunlight of Italy that "The Chevalier of Pensieri-Vani " was written, but in sight of the more prosaic and smoky picturesqueness of Chicago. So one cannot predicate from the environment the kind of literature to be evolved. Mr. Hamlin Garland has been a deserter for these many months. He is still engrossed in the "Life of Grant," which is to begin in the December number of McClure's Magazine. Those of us who know Mr. Garland's peculiarly strenuous sympathy with the rugged character of General Grant are looking forward with great interest to the time of publication. If he succeeds in bringing the real Grant-a living, faulty, human Grant-out of the chaos of material, he will have done a great service to the American people. Mrs. Elia W. Peattie, whose book of short stories, "A Mountain Woman," recently achieved a merited success, has given up her position on the Omaha World-Herald and has come to Chicago to live. Her presence here will make a delightful addition to "the Chicago school," as Sir Walter Besant has condescended to call it. And there is another acquisition in the person of Mr. Robert Herrick, Professor of English at the University of Chicago, who has just returned from fifteen months in Europe. Mr. Herrick has not yet published a book, but he is a man to watch. Three or four stories in the Atlantic and Scribner's show him to possess an original talent, an observant analytical mind, and the power of fluent and graceful expression. His work has variety and strength. A. C. McClurg and Company are about to publish a new kind of reference book, which will be useful to those who desire a short cut to knowledge. And even to those who have studied the subject, some features of this book on "National Epics" will be valuable. Each of the great epics, from the "Râmâyana," to "The Cid," and "The Song of Roland," is described in motive, structure, and versification. A history of the poem is also given, followed by a bibliography of the English translations, and in each case one long and characteristic quotation is given in English. In this way, a general superficial idea is conveyed of many inaccessible poems. The same firm will publish story of Swedish love, as an addition to the series of foreign love tales. This one is "Karine" translated from the German of Wilhelm Jensen, by Emma A. Endlich. It is a pretty sentimental little story, quite foreign to our vigorous Anglo-Saxon. "On the Red Staircase," a Russian novel soon to be issued, is of different calibre. A story of conspiracy and murder and desperate adventure, it is so full of action that one questions the possibility of it all. And when a thrilling situation is interrupted with, "I can die cheerfully, as becomes a Ramodanofsky," one wishes that the scene were at least in England so that the name might be Smith. The Joy of Life," is a novel of much more vitality than this, one that shows thought and penetration. The style is crude at times-often, indeed, and the figures are somewhat rigid; yet there is force in the book. Some of the situations are unusual and suggestive of things that lie deep in the human heart. The novel is written by Emma Wolf, the author of Other Things Being Equal," and it has just been issued. A little volume of verse, by Emily Huntington Miller, was published at the same time, a modest little volume which contains some delicate and lovely fancies expressed in musical words. It is called "From Avalon," and a kind of faint fragance hangs about it. But one of the cleverest books of the season is fresh from the press of Herbert S. Stone and Company. Its title "The Carissima "-is not a very happy one, but the story is a brilliant piece of work nevertheless. It is told avowedly, as one man would tell it to another, with singular directness, with admirable selfrestraint. There is no dwelling upon the pathos and tragedy which enter into this curious drama. The climaxes are not insisted on with over-emphasis; they seem to evolve themselves naturally out of the juxtaposition of characters. And one feels them more intensely in the light sketch of an incident, in the flash of a suggestion, in the word which lifts a veil for an instant and then drops it ironically, than if they were minutely described. The story hinges upon the curious hallucination of a man who had "seen the Thing too much." "For there is a Thing-too-much," he adds, "in nature, in men and women, in what happens. And you may tell by the look in a person's face whether they've seen it. They mayn't be cowards; most fairly healthy people have really plenty of pluck. Only, I tell you what takes it out of the bravest. They have seen Fear -Fear itself; that there's no getting over or arguing about. They've been 'to the end of the world and looked over the wall-they got to the place from which there's no way out." Yet with such a motive the writer is not morbid; she is even gay against this sombre background. And an intricate feminine character is developed in these surroundings. It is a little shadowy, it is not quite realized, as the men are; yet its very modern involutions are original and interesting. The book is clever, extremely clever, and it is constructed with art. Mr. H. C. Chatfield-Taylor's Spanish sketches, "The Land of the Castanet," have been dressed in their brilliant cover but a brief space. The book will revive interest in the most picturesque country in Europe, which is too easily slighted. by our conventional correctness. The writer's admiration for it is evident in every page of his interesting book. His mind is alert and observant and sympathetic. He has seen the things in the Spanish people that are strange to us; but he has seen them with abundant admiration. He does not belittle them nor patronize them; the book is thor oughly warm-hearted. The illustrations are from photographs and serve to emphasize the writer's descriptions. Escondido. Failure. When you are dead, when all you could not do Requiting you with peace when you are dead; When, like a robe, you lay your body by, Unloosed at last-how worn, and soiled, and frayed! Is it not pleasant just to let it lie Unused and be moth-eaten in the shade? Thus having failed and failed, to be at rest? From "Green Arras," by Laurence Housman. The Last Combat of the Gladiators J. B. Lippincott Company. From "Historical Tales - Roman." MAGAZINES. Prominent features of Harper's are part third of Du Maurier's serial, "The Martian an entertaining article on "President Kruger, by Poultney Bigelow; Dr. William Jacque's description of the process of obtaining electricity direct from coal; and W. D. Howells' personal recollections of the Autocrat at the Breakfast Table, in an article entitled "Oliver Wendell Holmes." part second of "Captains Courageous," Rudyard Kipling contributes a complete short story, "Bread Upon the Waters. "The Farthest North," an account of Dr. Nansen's adventures and achievements, is written by Cyrus C. Adams; "Early Life of Ulysses Grant" by Hamlin Garland; and an article appropriate to the season entitled" Bethlehem," by S. S. McClure. The frontispiece of the Christmas Century is a "Study for the Head of Christ." "The Christmas Kalends of Provence," by T. A. Janvier, is the product of intimate acquaintance with life in the south of France. "What Language Did Christ Speak?" is a valuable contribution by Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis. "Light in Dark Places," by Jacob A. Riis, presents reforms that have been adopted in New York City in playgrounds for poor children, public parks, and public baths. In the Atlantic Monthly appears an article by Mary Caroline Robbins, on "The Art of Public Improvement," in which she says that all nations have found artistic ways of their own to express their peculiar genius, and that the art we claim for America is the art of public improvement.' Besides other valuable contributions, there are biographical sketches of Professor Child, by George Lyman Kittredge; William Morris, by William Sharp; Thoreau, by Bradford Torrey. The complete novel in current issue of Lippincott's is "The Chase of an Heiress," by Christian Reid, the scene of which is laid in Santo Domingo. An article of interest is "Shutting Out the Sea," by George Ethelbert Walsh. Existing methods of coast defence are described and From " Revenge!" new methods suggested. Something about "Our First Silver Mine" is written by George J. Varney. HIS FIRST ACT WAS TO DISCHARGE EVERY SERVANT.-Page 45. Frederick A. Stokes Company. An elaborately illustrated article on the late Sir John Millais "in current Scribner's is a feature of special distinction. Then there is a dramatic sketch by Richard Harding Davis on the meditations of the Hon. Reggie Blake on the way to Halloway Prison, entitled "The Last Ride Together.' There are nine complete short stories. McClure's is particularly attractive with contributions from "Ian MacLaren," Rudyard Kipling, Frank Stockton, and others. Besides From a pictorial standpoint the Christmas number of the Cosmopolitan is particularly attractive. There are eight full-page reproductions of recent paintings by famous artists, as well as eight full-page portraits of English beauties of the Victorian Era. Besides a number of well selected stories, there are several articles of signalized importance, among which are "Ten Years' Captivity of Slatin Pasha," by Col. S. E. Tillman, and "Per |