Concerning Lafcadio Hearn Part 30

_Nation, The_, May 7, 1891, vol. 52, p. 385.

No. 6.

1890. TWO YEARS IN THE FRENCH WEST INDIES. By Lafcadio Hearn.

Ill.u.s.trated. (Publisher's Vignette.) New York: Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, 1890. 8vo., pp. (12) 431, 38 full-page ill.u.s.trations, 6 ill.u.s.trations in the text, green cloth ornamental.

(Reverse)

"_La facon d'etre du pays est si agreable, la temperature si bonne, et l'on y vit dans une liberte si honnete, que je n'aye pas vu un seul homme, ny une seule femme, qui en soient revenus, en qui je n'aye remarque une grande pa.s.sion d'y retourner._"--Le Pere Dutertre (1667).

(3) Dedication:--

a mon cher ami LEOPOLD ARNOUX Notaire a Saint Pierre, Martinique.

_Souvenir de nos promenades,--de nos voyages,--de nos causeries,--des sympathies echangees,--de tout le charme d'une amitie inalterable et inoubliable,--de tout ce qui parle a l'ame au doux Pays des Revenants._

(5-6) Preface (_Extract_).

The introductory paper, ent.i.tled "A Midsummer Trip to the Tropics"

consists for the most part of notes taken upon a voyage of nearly three thousand miles, accomplished in less than two months. During such hasty journeying it is scarcely possible for a writer to attempt anything more serious than a mere reflection of the personal experiences undergone; and, in spite of sundry justifiable departures from simple note-making, this paper is offered only as an effort to record the visual and emotional impressions of the moment.

My thanks are due to Mr. William Lawless, British Consul at St. Pierre, for several beautiful photographs, taken by himself, which have been used in the preparation of the ill.u.s.trations.

L. H.

Philadelphia, 1889.

(7) Contents:--

A Midsummer Trip to the Tropics (_Harper's Monthly_, July-September, 1888) Martinique Sketches:-- I. Les Porteuses (_Harper's Monthly_, July, 1889) II. La Grande Anse (_Harper's Monthly_, November, 1889) III. Un Revenant IV. La Guiablesse V. La Verette (_Harper's Monthly_, October, 1888) VI. Les Blanchisseusses VII. La Pelee VIII. 'Ti Canotie IX. La Fille de Couleur X. Bete-ni-Pie XI. Ma Bonne XII. "Pa combine, che!"

XIII. Ye XIV. Lys.

XV. Appendix: Some Creole Melodies

(9-10) Ill.u.s.trations:--

The Same. London: Harper and Brothers, 1890, 8vo.

Articles and Reviews:--

_New York Times, The_, September 1, 1890.

No. 7.

1894. GLIMPSES OF UNFAMILIAR j.a.pAN. By Lafcadio Hearn. In two volumes.

(Vignette.) Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company (The Riverside Press, Cambridge), 1894.

8vo., 2 vols. pp. (x) 699, dull green cloth, silver lettering and design, gilt top.

(1) Dedication:--

To the Friends whose kindness alone rendered possible my sojourn in the Orient,-- to PAYMASTER MITCh.e.l.l McDONALD, U. S. N.

and BASIL HALL CHAMBERLAIN, ESQ.

_Emeritus Professor of Philology and j.a.panese in the Imperial University of Tokyo_ I dedicate these volumes in token of Affection and Grat.i.tude.

(V-X) Preface (_Extract_).

But the rare charm of j.a.panese life, so different from that of all other lands, is not to be found in its Europeanized circles. It is to be found among the great common people, who represent in j.a.pan, as in all countries, the national virtues, and who still cling to their delightful old customs, their picturesque dresses, their Buddhist images, their household shrines, their beautiful and touching worship of ancestors.

This is the life of which a foreign observer can never weary, if fortunate and sympathetic enough to enter into it,--the life that forces him sometimes to doubt whether the course of our boasted Western progress is really in the direction of moral development. Each day, while the years pa.s.s, there will be revealed to him some strange and unsuspected beauty in it. Like other life, it has its darker side; yet even this is brightness compared with the darker side of Western existence. It has its foibles, its follies, its vices, its cruelties; yet the more one sees of it, the more one marvels at its extraordinary goodness, its miraculous patience, its never-failing courtesy, its simplicity of heart, its intuitive charity. And to our own larger Occidental comprehension, its commonest superst.i.tions, however contemned at Tokyo, have rarest value as fragments of the unwritten literature of its hopes, its fears, its experience with right and wrong,--its primitive efforts to find solutions for the riddle of the Unseen.

Contents:--

Volume I.

I. My First Day in the Orient II. The Writing of Kobodaishi III. Jizo IV. A Pilgrimage to Enoshima V. At the Market of the Dead (_Atlantic Monthly_, September, 1891) VI. Bon-Odori VII. The Chief City of the Province of the G.o.ds (_Atlantic Monthly_, November, 1891) VIII. Kitzuki: The Most Ancient Shrine in j.a.pan (_Atlantic Monthly_, December, 1891) IX. In the Cave of the Children's Ghosts X. At Mionoseki XI. Notes on Kitzuki XII. At Hinomisaki XIII. Shinju XIV. Yaegaki-Jinja XV. Kitsune

Volume II.

XVI. In a j.a.panese Garden (_Atlantic Monthly_, July, 1892) XVII. The Household Shrine XVIII. Of Women's Hair XIX. From the Diary of an English Teacher XX. Two Strange Festivals XXI. By the j.a.panese Sea XXII. Of a Dancing Girl (_Atlantic Monthly_, July, 1893) XXIII. From Hoki to Oki XXIV. Of Souls XXV. Of Ghosts and Goblins XXVI. The j.a.panese Smile (_Atlantic Monthly_, May, 1893) XXVII. Sayonara!

Pages 695-99 Index.

The Same. London: Osgood, McIlvaine and Company, 1894, 2 vols., 8vo.

New Edition. London: Gay and Bird's, 1902, 2 vols., Cr. 8vo.

New Edition. London: Kegan Paul, Trench and Company, 1903, 2 vols., Cr.

8vo.

Articles and Reviews:--

Bentzon, Th., _Revue des Deux Mondes_, June 1, 1904, vol. 21, p.

556.

Brandt, M. von, _Deutsche Rundschau_, October, 1900, vol. 27, p. 68.

Challaye, Felicien, _Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale_, 1903, vol. 11, p. 338.

Challaye, Felicien, _Revue de Paris_, December 1, 1904 vol. 6, p. 655.

_Literary World, The_, October 20, 1894, vol. 25, p. 347.

Scott, Mrs. M. McN., _Atlantic Monthly_, June, 1895, vol. 75, p. 830.

_Spectator, The_, November 17, 1894, vol. 73, p. 698.

No. 8.