An anecdotal account of the progress of the Third republic from the end
of May, 1871 to the year 1908. During twenty years of acquaintance with
people prominent in politics, literature and art the author has been
gathering material which has not yet found its way into permanent form.
* * * * *
“It is not easy to see for whose use the author designs it. It cannot be
for students, as the book is inaccurate and incomplete. Nor does it
possess compensating qualities for the general reader, being slipshod in
style and barren in ideas. It contains some sound and acute criticism
which deserve a worthier setting.”
− + =Ath.= 1909, 1: 582. My. 15. 750w.
+ =Dial.= 46: 406. Je. 16, ’09. 200w.
“In spite of this ambitious scheme the work lacks proportion and bears
evidence of hasty writing and superficial knowledge. His book does
embody some useful material that might be left unnoticed by a more
careful historian.”
− + =Nation.= 88: 628. Je. 24, ’09. 320w.
“Frederick Lawton deserves thanks from everybody interested in France
and in recent European history for the good work he has done in his
‘Third French republic.’ It is a book of much value and one which no
student of contemporary politics can neglect.”
+ =N. Y. Times.= 14: 401. Je. 26, ’09. 950w.
“On the whole it is accurate, but it fails to give the Catholic case
with any real force or fairness. We really cannot see any adequate
excuse for bringing out this kind of thing in a large volume with
elaborate illustrations. It is not attractive in itself, nor made
justifiable by profound acquaintance with diplomatic history. The
chapters on literature, science, and art are ludicrously inadequate if
they are intended to give English readers any idea of the great French
writers and artists of the last thirty years.”
− + =Sat. R.= 107: sup. 6. My. 22, ’09. 200w.
“A very readable book. Its most valuable part, we think, is to be found
in the summaries of science, literature, art, as they have been
developed during these four decades.”
+ − =Spec.= 102: 505. Mr. 27, ’09. 180w.
=Lea, Homer.=^{[11]} Valor of ignorance. **$1.80. Harper.
9–29140.
A work in military literature that commands the attention of every
student of United States history and of the science of war. Its object
is to show how unprepared the United States is for war and to prove the
possibility of a Japanese conquest of Western America. In the first part
the author shows that America is excessively opulent and arrogant
without military power to defend its opulence or support its arrogance.
Wealth cannot safeguard against foes, he says, and arbitration is an
illusion. In the second part, he shows logically how the Japanese might
seize and hold the Philippines, Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and
California.
* * * * *
“Written in an amazingly highfalutin’ style, bristling with historical
generalizations.”
− + =Ind.= 67: 1149. N. 18, ’09. 150w.
“Mr. Lea has written a very daring and startling book. Under the
marshaling of this bright and conscientious author they tell a story
which every American would do well to ponder.”
+ =Lit. D.= 39: 962. N. 27, ’09. 230w.
“Entertaining reading.”
+ =R. of Rs.= 40: 764. D. ’09. 150w.
=Lea, James Henry, and Hutchinson, J. R.= Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln.
Special ed. *$10. Houghton.
9–5537.
Here are recorded the results of investigation conducted in England and
America by one who believes in hereditary genius and who has been able
to trace Lincoln’s ancestry four generations further back than it has
been carried before. “In England the family were ‘ostensible yeomen,
with a dominant strain of gentle blood in their veins’; in America, they
were plain pioneers, with fine inherited traits.” (Nation.)
* * * * *
“By far the most notable volume which has been published so far this
year in honor of the one hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s
birth.” I. M. Tarbell.
+ =Am. Hist. R.= 14: 859. Jl. ’09. 300w.
“Altogether Mr. Lea’s contribution is decidedly the most original that
the centenary has evoked.”
+ =Dial.= 46: 233. Ap. 1, ’09. 300w.
“An excellent piece of special genealogical investigation.”
+ =Nation.= 88: 277. Mr. 18, ’09. 260w.
“The collaborators have told entertainingly the story of the Lincoln
family through ten successive generations.”
+ =N. Y. Times.= 14: 242. Ap. 17, ’09. 230w.
=Lea, John.= Romance of bird life: being an account of the education,
courtship, sport and play, journeys, fishing, fighting, piracy,
domestic and social habits, instinct, strange friendships and other
interesting aspects of the life of birds. *$1.50. Lippincott.
8–37685.
“A fascinating account of the habits and customs of all manner of birds,
telling how they are educated from the moment they emerge from the
shell, how much they know by instinct and how much they have to be
taught, of how they carry on their courtships, what they do for
recreation, how they take their journeys, how they fish and fight and
steal and act the pirate, their domestic virtues and vices, their
strange friendships and their social habits, and many other queer and
interesting things that most people would never dream of in connection
with birds. It deals with birds all over the world, from those as
familiar as the barnyard goose and hen to those of the least known
kinds, while one chapter has something to say of extinct species.”—N. Y.
Times.
* * * * *
“In such a ‘pot-pourri’ one naturally finds errors, but fewer than would
be expected; and most of these occur in the quotations from other
writers.”
+ − =Nation.= 88: 147. F. 11, ’09. 260w.
“Possibly the ‘romance’ is a little overstrained in places, and ordinary
incidents in a bird’s general life habits sometimes magnified or
transfigured into something more wonderful. Unlike most of the popular
bird books published in recent years this one fills a vacant place.”
+ − =Nature.= 81: 99. Jl. 22, ’09. 470w.
“Written with charming simplicity and rich with illustrations and
anecdote, with which [he] makes vivid [his] statement of scientific
fact.”
+ =N. Y. Times.= 13: 774. D. 12, ’08. 170w.
“It is certainly one of the most fascinating, suggestive, and readable
of the season’s gift-books.”
+ =Spec.= 101: sup. 706. N. 7, ’08. 700w.
=Le Bon, Gustave.= Evolution of forces. (International scientific
ser., v. 91.) *$1.75. Appleton.
8–16427.
“The first half of the book is devoted to a discussion of the principles
of physics, including the fundamental conceptions of time, space,
energy, and matter, and the principle of the conservation of energy and
of matter from the point of view of Le Bon’s theory.... The second half
contains an account of experiments, with numerous illustrations by the
author in support of his views. Some simple electrostatic experiments
are described from which he draws truly astonishing conclusions. The
latter part is devoted to a description of his experiments on
phosphorescence and ‘black light.’ This portion of the book will be
found very instructive to those who are interested in the little-known
subject of phosphorescence.”—Nature.
* * * * *
+ =A. L. A. Bkl.= 5: 79. Mr. ’09.
“Dr. Le Bon’s literary style is clearness itself, even although the
clearness may be purchased in some instances by frequent repetition. We
have noticed a few misprints.”
+ − =Ath.= 1908, 1: 701. Je. 6. 1700w.
“Dr. Le Bon certainly exhibits great originality and a powerful
imagination.”
+ =Nation.= 87: 583. D. 10, ’08. 170w.
“The book is clearly written, and the interest is maintained throughout.
We can recommend it to readers who are interested in revolutionary ideas
of physics and in the spectacle of the débâcle (according to Le Bon) of
a large amount of scientific doctrine. We would suggest, however, that
the reader need be under no obligation to consider the statements
contained in it as the latest accepted scientific gospel.”
+ − =Nature.= 79: 121. D. 3, ’08. 1300w.
Reviewed by W. S. Franklin.
− =Science=, n.s. 29: 580. Ap. 9, ’09. 450w.
“Dr. Le Bon’s very interesting book has been competently translated by
Mr. Legge, and should be studied by every reader who is interested in
this fairy-tale of science.”
+ =Spec.= 101: 199. Ag. 8, ’08. 440w.
=Lecky, Elisabeth (van Dedem) (Mrs. W. E. H. Lecky).=^{[12]} Memoir of
the Rt. Hon. William Edward Hartpole Lecky, M. P., O. M., LL. D., D.
C. L., Litt. D., member of the French institute and of the British
academy. *$2.50. Longmans.
9–28242.
“A chronicle of Lecky’s outer life, of his activities and widespread
intellectual interests and achievements, historical, philosophical,
political, with never a glimpse of the man himself. This is a memoir of
a wondrous brain, and to some extent of a character, so far as it
exprest itself in thought and work, but of our human brother there is
not a glimpse.”—Ind.
* * * * *
“The limitations of her materials taken into account, she has produced a
most interesting and always tactful biography.”
+ =Ath.= 1909, 2: 552. N. 6. 1250w.
“Within the lines thus laid down, the book is packed with diversified
interest for the student of our own times.”
+ =Ind.= 67: 1140. N. 18, ’09. 100w.
“A memoir that embodies so many of his own qualities of tact,
proportion, and reserve.”
+ =Nation.= 89: 571. D. 9, ’09. 2350w.
=R. of Rs.= 40: 756. D. ’09. 140w.
“Perhaps the Irish parts are the most valuable, because it is so
difficult to find an impartial history of Ireland. Mrs. Lecky has done
her task exceedingly well. We cannot pay her a higher compliment than to
say that it is executed with masculine judgment and skill.”
+ =Sat. R.= 108: 535. O. 30, ’09. 1150w.
“It would not be easy to praise too highly the skill and the unerring
taste with which Mrs. Lecky has brought together the none too numerous
documents of her distinguished husband’s career.”
+ =Spec.= 103: 605. O. 16, ’09. 2500w.
=Lecky, William E. H.= Historical and political essays. *$3.50.
Longmans.
8–31477.
Fourteen essays including the following: Thoughts on history, The
political value of history, The [British] empire, Carlyle’s message to
his age, Mme. de Staël, Israel among the nations, The private
correspondence of Sir Robert Peele, and Formative influences.
* * * * *
“Some of these essays seem to be written from the standpoint of the
controversialist rather than of the historian, but the book as a whole
well repays perusal both for its matter and for its literary style.”
+ − =Am. Hist. R.= 14: 596. Ap. ’09. 260w.
Reviewed by W: E. Lingelback.
=Ann. Am. Acad.= 34: 436. S. ’09. 630w.
“This collection of essays and addresses fully justifies its
publication.”
+ =Ath.= 1909, 1: 98. Ja. 23. 330w.
=Nation.= 87: 626. D. 24, ’08. 60w.
“Men like Lecky are forceful influences in both moral and intellectual
development, and every reader of these essays will be rewarded with many
thoughts and suggestions that may well serve him as sign posts on the
road of culture.” G: S. Hellman.
+ =N. Y. Times.= 14: 55. Ja. 30, ’09. 260w.
“His essay on Carlyle is a good example of common sense in judgment upon
genius.”
+ =Pol. Sci. Q.= 24: 177. Mr. ’09. 200w.
+ =Spec.= 102: 705. My. 1, ’09. 500w.
=Ledoux, Louis Vernon.=^{[11]} Yzdra: a tragedy in three acts.
**$1.25. Putnam.
8–1689.
A drama based upon an anonymous story told in the “Secreta secretorum,”
a book widely read during the middle ages. The story tells of a Hindu
princess who, after being fed without her knowledge upon poisons, became
poisonous herself, and is used as the tool of her father’s empire to
propose betrothal to Alexander the Great, and so, thru a kiss, to bring
death to the hero before he should invade India. The love between the
conqueror and the princess, her discovery of the taint in her blood, her
decision to ruin her own country to save her lover’s life, and the great
struggle between his ambition and his love for Yzdra—all afford material
which the dramatist has worked into shape with fine power.
* * * * *
“The author has interwoven humor, wisdom, Eastern religion, and
superstition into the thread of his story. He has consistently and
effectively depicted the characters of the play.” G: S. Hellman.
+ =N. Y. Times.= 14: 613. O. 16, ’09. 950w.
“There are both grace and strength in this drama, and it also possesses
the movement and spirit needed for presentation upon the stage.”
+ =Outlook.= 93: 832. D. 11, ’09. 220w.
=Lee, Jennette Barbour.= Simeon Tetlow’s shadow. †$1.50. Century.
9–4193.
Simeon Tetlow is a railroad president, and the personification of his
road. “It might almost be said that he _was_ the road. Its minute
ramifications and its great divisions were hardly more than the nerves
and arteries that threaded Simeon Tetlow’s thin frame.” John Bennett,
the secretary, is the “shadow.” He is “hands and feet” for his chief,
“almost it might seem, lungs and a few other vital organs.” Miss Lee
shows intimately the developing and expanding influence which the quiet
secretary exerts over the magnate until the latter awakens to the
meaning of brotherhood service.
* * * * *
“There is no love element, but the realistic details of business and
office management give a certain interest to the slight story, which is
well told.”
+ =A. L. A. Bkl.= 5: 91. Mr. ’09. ✠
“John Bennett is the chief actor, and his feats are as probable as those
of the heroes of Messrs. Oliver Optic and Henty. Accepted as a novel of
sentiment and not of commercial life, the story may be enjoyed for its
fluency and sweetness.”
+ − =Nation.= 88: 443. Ap. 29, ’09. 680w.
“In nearly all the book there are a freshness and originality of style
and a poetic touch that have made it possible for the author to bid
defiance to the actualities of life and yet to write a very acceptable
story.”
+ − =N. Y. Times.= 14: 146. Mr. 13, ’09. 370w.
“A book with the blessed quality of difference. The story has in it an
uncommon human quality.”
+ =N. Y. Times.= 14: 376. Je. 12, ’09. 200w.
+ − =Outlook.= 92: 21. My. 1, ’09. 380w.
=Lee, Sidney Lazarus=, ed.^{[5]} Life of William Shakespeare. New and
rev. ed.; with a new preface. *$2.25. Macmillan.
9–10641.
A new edition revised to include: the results of the author’s researches
during the past ten years; errors have been corrected, bibliographies
have been brought down to date, and important additions have been made
to the bibliographical information. In a new preface of twenty-four
pages Mr. Lee points out five newly discovered references to
Shakespeare: to the personal character of Shakespeare’s father; to
Shakespeare’s sojourn in London; to the possession of a coat-of-arms; to
the dramatist in his declining years and to Shakespeare as a property
owner.
* * * * *
=A. L. A. Bkl.= 5: 196. Je. ’09.
“Mr. Lee has made revisions, in a brief, but satisfactory style.”
+ =Ath.= 1908, 2: 69. Jl. 18. 90w.
Reviewed by E: Fuller.
+ =Bookm.= 29: 635. Ag. ’09. 550w.
“It is very well that a handbook like this should be accurately leveled
up from time to time.”
+ =Ind.= 67: 90. Jl. 8, ’09. 130w.
+ − =Nation.= 89: 168. Ag. 19, ’09. 180w.
“It still stands as the sanest, most readable, and most useful of all
the biographies.”
+ =N. Y. Times.= 14: 302. My. 15, ’09. 130w.
+ =R. of Rs.= 39: 768. Je. ’09. 150w.
+ =Sat. R.= 106: 582. N. 7, ’08. 60w.
=Lee, Vernon.= Gospels of anarchy and other contemporary studies.
**$3.50. Brentano’s.
8–22324.
A group of essays on such subjects as Emerson; Tolstoy; Nietzsche, and
the Will to power; Prof. James and the Will to believe; Rosny, Ruskin,
H. G. Wells, “Deterioration of soul,” and “The economic parasitism of
women.”
* * * * *
“May we gently ask, as we read these pages, filled with opinions
expressed with uncouth violence of language, whether such a manner of
writing can carry us over the difficulties of the way? What has become
of what was once a style—artificial, imitative, but a style?”
− =Ath.= 1908, 2: 301. S. 12. 740w.
“Vernon Lee shows all her old qualities of brightness and insight, and
writes with a certain masculinity of thought with femininity of
expression.”
+ =N. Y. Times.= 13: 415. Jl. 25, ’08. 1900w.
=Lee, Vernon.=^{[11]} Laurus nobilis. **$1.50. Lane.
9–23736.
Chapters on “Art and life” that “explain beauty as a natural uplifting
force.” (N. Y. Times.) “Three significant coincidences, early pointed
out, indicate the line of argument followed by the author. These
coincidences are: ‘that between development of the æsthetic faculties
and the development of the altruistic instincts; that between
development of a sense of æsthetic harmony and a sense of the higher
harmonies and universal life; and, before everything else, the
coincidence between the preference for æsthetic pleasures and the nobler
growth of the individual.’” (Dial.)
* * * * *
“Parts of the volume are charmingly written, and certain pages of ‘The
art and the country’ show the author at her best. Unfortunately, there
are other passages both obscure and slipshod.”
+ − =Ath.= 1909, 2: 460. O. 16. 520w.
“In spite of the much fine writing in the book, one feels the earnest
sincerity of it all. The book is one to read slowly and take to heart.”
+ =Dial.= 47: 289. O. 16, ’09. 300w.
“The book is the fruit of a spirit that lacks neither charm nor
distinction, but always the ardor to embody these qualities in a form of
quite authentic memorableness.”
− + =Nation.= 89: 288. S. 23, ’09. 300w.
=N. Y. Times.= 14: 606. O. 16, ’09. 550w.
“It is long indeed since we have met with a volume of art criticism so
wise, so attractive, so suggestive. The book is indeed too full of
charm, originality, and wisdom to be quickly read or dealt with in a few
lines. It should be bought and studied.”
+ + =Spec.= 103: 515. O. 2, ’09. 470w.
=Leeds, Charles Carley.=^{[12]} Mechanical drawing for trade schools.
Machinery trades ed. (Carnegie technical schools text books.) *$2.
Van Nostrand.
9–10798.
A text prepared “for the purpose of grounding those engaged in the
machinery trades in the principles of mechanical drawing and to
familiarize them with the methods in vogue in drafting rooms. The course
is divided into a series of 58 lessons. The subjects treated are: Use of
instruments, lettering, sketching, tracing, projection drawing,
sectioning, drawing to scale, assembly and detail drawing, sections,
intersections and development, conventionalities used in drawing, spur
and bevel gears, worm and gear, and the periphery and plate cam.”—Engin.
Rec.
* * * * *
“The method of arrangement of this book at once commends itself for its
simplicity and convenience. It can scarcely be considered to be, in a
higher sense, a text book of mechanical drawing, but it presents a
course of lessons which is well designed to make a reasonably competent
draftsman of anyone who conscientiously goes through with it, and it
will minimize the need of a personal instructor.”
+ =Engin. N.= 62: sup. 51. N. 18, ’09. 530w.
“Much of the work is similar to that found in other text books on
mechanical drawing, and it is difficult to see wherein this text would
surpass them for use in trade schools. The sequence of the work is well
planned, but it seems that an endeavor is made to cover too much ground.
Throughout the work too little is left for the students’ originality,
there being a great deal of almost straight copy work.”
− + =Engin. Rec.= 60: 587. N. 20, ’09. 190w.
=Lees, Frederic.=^{[5]} Summer in Touraine: the record of a sojourn
among the châteaux of the Loire. *$2.75. McClurg.