Olenin is a young Russian noble whose career has simulated outwardly that of his companions, but whose soul has been unsatisfied and empty, driving him finally to break away from his old associations and go for a campaign in the Caucasus. With that campaign the story does not concern itself, going on to its conclusion when the young man settles down in a Cossack village to wait for his promotion. This portion of the book is inimitable for the slight, almost imperceptible touches through which Tolstoi has the power, greater than that of any one else, of reproducing the actual scene he wishes to transcribe. This power can scarcely be called realism. It might be better characterized as realization. It is possible in this way to know the exact life of this brave, indolent, good-tempered, healthful race of half-Russians, half-Circassians, and to feel the charm they possessed for Olenin. It is a curious fact that the most civilized natures are most akin to barbarism. The simple directness of barbaric virtues, the healthy passion and aggressiveness of its vices make the process of atavism easy to a nature that has risen above the mere materialism of civilization. The process of this reversion in Olenin is hastened, of course, by love for a Cossack woman, one of those clean-minded girls who think no harm in a kiss or caress, but whose virtue is an absolute and natural thing that admits of no question or discussion. His love is not of the kind that could mean her dishonor, and he asks for Marianka’s hand in marriage, feeling helplessly and hopelessly all the while that real union is impossible between them—that though he can understand her and go down into her semi-barbarism, she can never know him or appreciate the motives that impel him to leave a state that she considers higher than her own. The story ends abruptly and what is called by the professional novel-reader “unsatisfactorily.” Marianka clings in preference to her Cossack lover, and Olenin feeling despairingly that this rude, simple, barbarous life can never absorb, can only encyst him, goes rack to his duties at the front.—New York World.
THE
E B E R S G A L L E R Y
A COLLECTION OF PAINTINGS
ILLUSTRATING THE
ROMANCES OF GEORG EBERS
BY THE FOLLOWING ARTISTS
L. Alma-Tadema, W. A. Beer, W. Gentz, P. Grot-Johann,
H. Kaulbach, Ferd. Keller, O. Knille, F. Simm,
Laura Tadema, E. Teschendorff, P. Thumann.
TWENTY ILLUSTRATIONS
WITH DESCRIPTIVE LETTER-PRESS
Printed from handsome large new type on plate-paper
Photographic Reproduction by Friedrich Bruckmann of Munich
| In loose sheets, in cloth covered box, | $22.50 |
| One Vol., Folio, bound in half morocco, gilt edges, by Alfred Matthews, | 40.00 |
| One Vol., Folio, superbly bound in full morocco extra, by Alfred Matthews, | 50.00 |
William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York.
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.