Chapter M: Little's at the Sign of the Burning Bush

A novel of such universal human appeal that locality makes little difference. It starts as a satire on Scotch divinity students, tho there is said to be "not a word of preaching in it".

"Characters drawn with a sure hand, and with unusual subtlety. The
story broadens and strikes deep roots into human nature and human
life ... a story that seems as if it might have been made out of
the real experiences of flesh and blood, told with humor that is
sometimes biting and sometimes gentle, and with very great
humanness."--_The New York Times Review._

GERTRUDE HALL'S THE UNKNOWN QUANTITY

A young widow comes to New York to investigate various business interests of her late husband, and finds herself face to face at the outset with the two most vital problems of a woman's life.

"Her people are alive. They linger in the imagination."--_Boston
Transcript._

"Seeing life with sincerity and truth ... she has a rather big idea
for a working basis."--_The Bookman._

"Retains the charmed interest ... the quiet, thoughtful style, and
the vivid, if restrained, humanity. The tale is so natural, so
lifelike.... The author's evident faith in the eternal rightness of
things."--_Chicago Record-Herald._

GEORGE GARY EGGLESTON'S RECOLLECTIONS OF A VARIED LIFE

By the author of "A Rebel's Recollections," "Captain Sam," "A Daughter of the South," "Long Knives," etc. With portrait.

These reminiscences of the veteran author and editor are rich in fields so wide apart as the experiences of a Hoosier schoolmaster (the basis for the well-known story), a young man's life in Virginia before the War, a Confederate soldier, a veteran in the literary life of New York.

"Jeb Stuart," "Fitz Lee," Beauregard, Grant, Frank R. Stockton, John Hay, Stedman, Bryant, Parke Godwin, "Mark Twain," Gosse, Pulitzer, Laffan, and Schurz, are among the many who appear.

The author was born at Vevay, Indiana, 1839, practiced law in Virginia; served in the Confederate Army, was Literary Editor of the _New York Evening Post_ for 6 years, Editor of the _Commercial Advertiser_ (now the _Globe_); and for 11 years Editorial writer for _The World_.

"There are few American men of letters whose reminiscences would
seem to promise more. The man's experiences cover so wide a period;
he has had such exceptional opportunities of seeing interesting men
and events at first hand."--_Bookman._

"Has approached the emergencies of life with courage and relish ...
qualities that make for readableness ... this autobiography,
despite a tendency to anecdotal divagations ... is thoroughly
entertaining."--_Nation._

"Told with the convincing force of actual experience ... has all
the excellences, and not many of the defects, of the trained
journalist ... tells us rapidly and effectively what sort of a life
he has led ... full of interest."--_Dial._

"Its cozily intimate quality.... One of those books which the
reviewer begins to mark appreciatively for quotation, only to
discover ere long that he cannot possibly find room for half the
passages selected."--_New York Tribune._

"Very pleasant are these reviews of the days that are
gone."--_Sun._

"He has much to say and says it graphically."--_Times-Review._

"The most charming and useful of his many books ... sympathetic,
kindly, humorous, and confidential talk ... laughable anecdotes ...
a keen observer's and critic's comment on more than half a century
of American development."--_Hartford Courant._

"Seldom does one come upon so companionable a volume of
reminiscences ... the author has good materials galore and presents
them with so kindly a humor that one never wearies of his chatty
history ... the whole volume is genial in spirit and eminently
readable."--_Chicago Record-Herald._

"Deserves to rank high in the literature of American autobiography,
even though that literature boasts the masterpiece of Benjamin
Franklin."--_San Francisco Argonaut._

WILLIAM DE MORGAN'S JOSEPH VANCE

A touching story, yet full of humor, of lifelong love and heroic sacrifice. While the scene is mostly in and near the London of the fifties, there are some telling glimpses of Italy, where the author lives much of the time.

"The book of the last decade; the best thing in fiction since Mr.
Meredith and Mr. Hardy; must take its place as the first great
English novel that has appeared in the twentieth century."--Lewis
Melville in _New York Times Saturday Review_.

"If the reader likes both 'David Copperfield' and 'Peter Ibbetson,'
he can find the two books in this one."--_The Independent._

WILLIAM DE MORGAN'S ALICE-FOR-SHORT

This might paradoxically be called a genial ghost-and-murder story, yet humor and humanity again dominate, and the most striking element is the touching love story of an unsuccessful man. The reappearance in Nineteenth Century London of the long-buried past, and a remarkable case of suspended memory, give the dramatic background.

"Really worth reading and praising ... will be hailed as a
masterpiece. If any writer of the present era is read a half
century hence, a quarter century, or even a decade, that writer is
William De Morgan."--_Boston Transcript._

"It is the Victorian age itself that speaks in those rich,
interesting, over-crowded books.... Will be remembered as Dickens'
novels are remembered."--_Springfield Republican._

WILLIAM DE MORGAN'S SOMEHOW GOOD

The purpose and feeling of this novel are intense, yet it is all mellowed by humor, and it contains perhaps the author's freshest and most sympathetic story of young love. Throughout its pages the "God be praised evil has turned to good" of the old Major rings like a trumpet call of hope. This story of to-day tells of a triumph of courage and devotion.

"A book as sound, as sweet, as wholesome, as wise, as any in the
range of fiction."--_The Nation._

"Our older novelists (Dickens and Thackeray) will have to look to
their laurels, for the new one is fast proving himself their equal.
A higher quality of enjoyment than is derivable from the work of
any other novelist now living and active in either England or
America."--_The Dial._

WILLIAM DE MORGAN'S IT NEVER CAN HAPPEN AGAIN

This novel turns on a strange marital complication, and is notable for two remarkable women characters, the pathetic girl Lizarann and the beautiful Judith Arkroyd, with her stage ambitions. Lizarann's father, Blind Jim, is very appealingly drawn, and shows rare courage and devotion despite cruel handicaps. There are strong dramatic episodes, and the author's inevitable humor and optimism.

"De Morgan at his very best, and how much better his best is than
the work of any novelist of the past thirty years."--_Independent._

"There has been nothing at all like it in our day. The best of our
contemporary novelists ... do not so come home to our business and
our bosoms ... his method ... is very different in most important
respects from that of Dickens. He is far less the showman, the
dashing prestidigitator ... more like Thackeray ... precisely what
the most 'modern' novelists are striving for--for the most part in
vain ... most enchanting ... infinitely lovable and
pathetic."--_The Nation._

"Another long delightful voyage with the best English company ...
from Dukes to blind beggars ... you could make out a very good case
for handsome Judith Arkroyd as an up-to-date Ethel Newcome ... the
stuff that tears in hardened and careless hearts are made of ...
singularly perceiving, mellow, wise, charitable, humorous ... a
plot as well defined as if it were a French farce."--_The Times
Saturday Review._

"The characters of Blind Jim and Lizarann are wonderful--worthy of
Dickens at his best."--Professor William Lyon Phelps, of Yale,
author of "Essays on Modern Novelists."

WILLIAM DE MORGAN'S AN AFFAIR OF DISHONOR

A dramatic story of England in the time of the Restoration. It commences with a fatal duel, and shows a new phase of its remarkable author. The movement is fairly rapid, and the narrative absorbing, with occasional glints of humor.