The Riverside Bulletin, March, 1910 Part 1

The Riverside Bulletin, March, 1910.

by Anonymous.

Fiction

THE DUKE'S PRICE By Demetra and Kenneth Brown

With ill.u.s.trations in color by A. G. LEARNED. 12mo, $1.20 _net_.

Postage extra.

International marriage novels have been many of late, even as the number of American girls marrying abroad has increased, but this one is strikingly different from the type that has become almost hackneyed. The heroine, a beautiful girl, the daughter of a New York multi-millionaire, marries a French Duke, and goes to live with him in the ancestral chteau. So far, the situation is familiar. But this Duke is not the melodramatic villain too often seen. He is a gentleman and a good fellow, and in the misunderstandings that arise the reader's sympathy is evenly divided between the lonely wife and the proud and unhappy young Duke. The development of the story is of absorbing interest, leading to an exciting and thoroughly satisfactory climax. Not the least of the attractions of the story is that the authors know the world that they write about. Mrs. Kenneth Brown (Demetra Vaka) will be remembered as the author of "Haremlik," the brilliant study of the life of Turkish women which was one of the most notable and successful books of 1909. The collaboration of the Kenneth Browns is one of the most interesting literary partnerships in contemporary fiction. Kenneth Brown numbers among his books "Eastover Court House," "Sirocco," and other successful novels.

[Ill.u.s.tration: IAN HAY]

THE RIGHT STUFF By Ian Hay

With frontispiece ill.u.s.tration by JAMES MONTGOMERY FLAGG.

12mo, $1.20 _net_. Postage extra.

Like Locke and Snaith, Ian Hay is a young British writer whose keen sense of humor and genial insight into human nature will make an instant appeal to the large audience of novel readers. "The Right Stuff" tells of the progress of a young Scottish lad from the lowly surroundings of his home in the hills, through Edinburgh university, through gruelling years as a newspaper hack in London, to the position of private secretary to a man deep in political life of the London of to-day. In this position he comes into daily touch with the immediate members of his patron's family, and ultimately, through a series of highly amusing episodes, takes to himself one of the sprightly twin sisters of his superior's wife.

Such is the story. The charm and the real fun lie in the constant surprises and whimsies of the twin sisters, in their irrepressible young brother,--a peer of that infant prodigy, The Admirable Tinker,--whose slang is infectious and novel, and above all in the character and doings of Robin the hero. Since Barrie's "When a Man's Single," readers have not been introduced to so canny a young man, or one so altogether likable and human. His extraordinary proposal alone is a chapter that will make Ian Hay famous, but in all his doings he is a hero that will delight the reader's heart, and long be remembered as "The Right Stuff."

(_Ready in May_)

THE TWISTED FOOT By Henry Milner Rideout

Author of "Dragon's Blood," "The Siamese Cat," "Admiral's Light," etc. With 8 ill.u.s.trations by G. C. Widney.

12mo, $1.20 _net_. Postage extra.

[Ill.u.s.tration: From "THE TWISTED FOOT"]

"Clean and wholesome danger,"--that is the phrase, borrowed from the book itself, that the editor of London _Punch_ chose to describe the engrossing interest of "Dragon's Blood," Mr. Rideout's brilliant novel of last year. Still more applicable is it to his new story, "The Twisted Foot." This is an interesting, absorbing narrative of mystery and adventure in the Malay Islands. Seldom has a novelist hit upon a more haunting series of happenings than those which involve the American hero, the charming heroine, the mysterious Englishman, the more mysterious Asiatics, that live in the book. Over all is shed the glamour and mystery of the Far East--of tropical seas and remote islands. It is Mr. Rideout's best story. A brilliant series of drawings by Widney add not a little to the interest of this notable book. (_Ready in May_)

AN ARMY MULE By Charles Miner Thompson

Author of "The Calico Cat," etc. Ill.u.s.trated by F. R.

Gruger. 16mo, $1.00 _net_. Postage extra.

That interesting village which was the scene of the episode of "The Calico Cat" furnishes Mr. Thompson with the material for another highly diverting tale. The Army Mule in question is one Mr. Job Bixby, a veteran of the Civil War. The story of what happened to him on the day set for his wedding, and the surprising complications that ensued from the innocent trick played by two mischievous boys, make a thoroughly amusing piece of humor. In addition to its taking humor, the story has a vivid reality of character and incident.

The ill.u.s.trations are by Gruger, whose character drawing contributes much to the interest and amus.e.m.e.nt furnished by Mr. Thompson.

(_Ready in April_)

THE G.o.dPARENTS By Grace Sartwell Mason

Ill.u.s.trated by F. Vaux Wilson. 12mo, $1.10 _net_. Postage extra.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THE G.o.dPARENTS"]

How a well-poised young woman just about to sail for her fourteenth summer in Europe was hurried from the steamer by a strange young man, how she went with him to the mountains of Pennsylvania, and, chaperoned by her competent French maid, camped out in the woods for three idyllic weeks, saved a diverting little boy from designing persons, and entered upon a happy love affair, is told in this unique and charming story. The book has that happy mingling of humor and romance, unusual incident and engaging characters that have made such stories as "Our Lady of the Beeches" and "Pines of Lory" linger in the memory of their readers as the most enjoyable of tales.

The author, Mrs. Mason, will be remembered as joint author of "The Car and the Lady," one of the most successful automobile romances ever written. (_Ready in April_)

COUNTRY NEIGHBORS By Alice Brown

Author of "The Story of Thyrza," "Rose MacLeod," "The County Road," etc. 12mo, $1.20 _net_. Postage extra.

Among the short-story writers of the day, Miss Alice Brown stands unapproached for the ability and power of her tales of New England life.

The present collection, which contains the best of her stories written since her earlier successes, is of notable interest. Lovers of her short stories will find it the equal of any of her earlier collections. The following are a few of the sixteen t.i.tles: The Play House, Sat.u.r.day Night, The Auction, A Grief Deferred, Partners, The Challenge, Gardener Jim, The Masquerade.

THE ROYAL AMERICANS By Mary Hallock Foote

Author of "The Desert and the Sown," "Coeur d'Alene," "The Led-Horse Claim," etc. 12mo, $1.25 _net_. Postage extra.

This new novel from the brilliant pen of Mrs. Foote is in a new vein for her, but in one that will win many readers. It is an ample, leisurely, delightful historical romance of the days of the Colonial Wars and the American Revolution, and gets its t.i.tle from a famous Colonial regiment which readers of "The Last of the Mohicans" will remember. The story begins with the birth of the heroine the night of the fall of Fort Ontario in 1756, and runs to and through the Revolution. The princ.i.p.al characters are this girl, her widowed father, an officer in the Royal Americans, his ward, a wild girl of white parentage whom he rescues from a long captivity among the Indians, a number of fine young men, and numerous subsidiary characters, real and fict.i.tious, including fine delineations of Ethan Allen and the famous Schuyler family. The plot involves woodland adventures and satisfactory love affairs with a final happy outcome. The book is an admirable historic picture of the time, but it is distinguished from most historical novels by Mrs. Foote's remarkable gift for portraying the relations between people, which gives to it all a human reality seldom found in books of this type.

THE PROFESSIONAL AUNT By Mary C. E. Wemyss

16mo, $1.00 _net_. Postage extra.

The large public that took delight in "Elizabeth and her German Garden,"

and the larger public that likes to read of the ways of children and enjoys a good love story, will welcome this delightful book. It deals with the experiences of a charming young woman whose married sisters have made her a "professional aunt." The ways of children, their moods and manners, have never been more vividly and seductively portrayed.

There is a zest in the account of household happenings that wins the reader at once, but the book is much more than a story about children.

The love affairs of "Aunt Woggles" and her own charming personality will become permanent memories.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MRS. WEMYSS]

This is the author's first full-sized novel. She is an Englishwoman, one of a family of fourteen children, and she married an officer in the English army. "The Professional Aunt" will make her many friends on both sides of the sea.

LITTLE BROTHER O' DREAMS By Elaine Goodale Eastman

Printed and bound in distinctive style. Narrow 12mo, $1.00 _net_.

Postage extra.

This tender and poetic story has a power of imaginative pathos that will take it straight to the heart of the sensitive reader. "Little Brother o' Dreams," the shy, poetic elf of the woods, who makes friends with the rich man's child from the city and grows up to be both a bee-man and a poet, the lover of his childhood's friend, will stay in the memory as one of the unforgettable characters of contemporary fiction. It is not a novel for the man in the street, but for discerning readers it will have a rare and unique charm. Mrs. Eastman has already won distinction, both as a poet and as an authority in child culture.

JOHN FORSYTH'S AUNTS By Eliza Orne White