Pottenger, Milton Alberto. Symbolism. $2.50. Robertson.
A treatise on the soul of things, which demonstrates that the natural world is but a symbol of the real world, explains why there are but ten digits in our mathematical system, and shows the pack of playing cards, or book of 52, to be an ancient Masonic Bible, each card a symbol of universal law. It reveals new things about many Masonic symbols and Biblical expressions and declares that the United States is a Masonic nation whose duty and history are to be read in these ancient sacred symbols. There are charts and drawings.
Potter, Mrs. Frances B. (Squire). Ballingtons. [†]$1.50. Little.
Mrs. Potter’s first book is a study of the principles that underlie the misery resulting from two unhappy marriages. The main action sympathetically follows the awakening of Agnes Sidney from the condition of care-free girlhood to the state of restricted wifehood with Ferdinand Ballington lording the right of financial despotism over her. The author has drawn a spiritually minded woman whose great love and keen sense of duty buoy her up when the discovery of pettiness and low aims would tend to submerge her. In contrast to the tyranny of withholding is portrayed in the sub-action the tyranny of giving, in which a wealthy girl, mistress of her own fortune, marries a quiet, refined bank clerk. Here a man’s sensitive longing for independence is opposed by the dominant freeheartedness and worldliness of his wife.
[*] “A distinctive book not soon forgotten like the average novel.”
| + + | Critic. 47: 579. D. ‘05. 120w. |
“Here and there the workmanship is a bit crude; here and there the book would have gained by compression and excision, but, take it all in all, it is the most remarkable novel that has come to our desk for many a long day. It takes its rare and high place because, as we read we say again and again, not ‘This is lifelike,’ but ‘This is life.’”
| + + + | N. Y. Times. 10: 672. O. 14, ‘05. 810w. |
[*] “It is conspicuously lacking in finish of style in places, and is not at all points well put together; but it is a real piece of work, full of true feeling, genuine insight, and a sincere and sound ethical judgment.”
| + — | Outlook. 81: 709. N. 25, ‘05. 170w. |