THE BRIDE OF THE NILE, a Romance, by Georg Ebers, from the German by Clara Bell. Authorized edition, in two volumes. Price, paper covers, $1.00, cloth binding, $1.75 per set.
“This romance has much value, apart from its interest as a narrative. The learned author, who has made the Land of the Nile an object of special study and research, throws a clear, steady light on one of those complicated periods of history when nationality seems submerged in the conflicting interests of sects and factions. The history of Egypt towards the middle of the seventh century, A.D., forms a sort of historical whirlpool. The tide of Moslem invasion and the counter-current of patriotism were temporarily swayed by the intermingling currents of sectarianism, ecclesiasticism and individual self-interest.
“All the leading characters are typical of these contending forces, and also display an unreasoning impulsiveness in both love and hatred, characteristic of a tropical clime.
“The Egyptian heathen, the Egyptian Christian, the Greek Christian, the Moslem and Ethiopian show the feelings peculiar to their political conditions by word and act, thus making their relationship to one another very distinct, and though not an historical study, at least a study of the probabilities of that epoch. It is also a reliable picture of the manners, customs and civilization of a period less generally known than those remote, and consequently more attractive periods of the building of the pyramids, and of the Pharoahs.
“The portrayal of individual character and arrangement of incidents are necessarily secondary to the higher aims of this entertaining and instructive romance. It is only towards the end of the second volume that the significance of the title becomes apparent. The ‘Bride’ was a Greek Christian doomed by the superstitious authorities to be drowned in the Nile as a sacrifice to appease the anger of the creative powers, supposed to be withholding the usual overflow of its waters. She escaped her watery fate, and her rival, an unprincipled heiress, became a voluntary sacrifice through vanity and despair. This author has already won much renown by previous romances founded on interesting epochs of Egyptian history.”—Daily Alta, California.
William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York.
WAR AND PEACE. A Historical Novel, by Count Léon Tolstoï, translated into French by a Russian Lady and from the French by Clara Bell. Authorized Edition. Complete, Three Parts in Box. Paper, $3.00. Cloth, $5.25.
| Part I. Before Tilsit, 1805-1807, in two volumes. Paper, $1.00. Cloth, $1.75 per set. |
| ” II. The Invasion, 1807-1812, in two volumes. Paper, $1.00. Cloth, $1.75 per set. |
| ” III. Borodino, The French at Moscow—Epilogue, 1812-1820, in two volumes. Paper, $1.00. Cloth, $1.75 per set. |
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
“A story of Russia in the time of Napoleon’s wars. It is a story of the family rather than of the field, and is charming in its delineations of quaint Russian customs. It is a novel of absorbing interest, full of action and with a well managed plot; a book well worth reading.”—Philadelphia Enquirer.