Chapter IX: Book Reviews

"A good book is the precious life blood of a master spirit."
JOHN MILTON.

I. Assignments

1. Write a review of a book of travels. 2. Write a review of a biography. 3. Write a review of a novel.

II. Models

I

FRASER, JOHN FOSTER. _The Amazing Argentine._ Pp. 291,
illustrated. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company. $1.50 net.

This volume should go far to dissipate any idea that there is
not much of any consequence south of the Rio Grande besides the
Panama Canal. In the story of his journeyings over the length
and breadth of this enormous country--twice the size of
Mexico--Mr. Fraser paints us a picture of a progressive people,
and a country that is rapidly assuming a position as the
foremost producer of the world's meat-supply. Stretching from
the Atlantic to the Andes Mountains and from north of the Tropic
of Capricorn to the Straits of Magellan, it supports 30,000,000
cattle, over 80,000,000 sheep, and 8,000,000 horses. The
railroads, in which the British have invested £300,000,000, are
among the best equipped in the world, and carry annually
40,000,000 tons of freight, with approximate receipts of
£25,000,000. The export trade is advancing by leaps and bounds,
and in 1912 the value of wool exports was £50,000,000,
live-stock products £35,000,000, and agricultural produce
£53,000,000; while the extent of the frozen-meat business
may be gaged from the fact that £11,000,000 is invested in
freezing-houses. The book is a distinct help to Americans in
showing them a little more of the great country that is opening
up to their enterprise.--_The Literary Digest_, October 17,
1914.[2]

[2] Reprinted by permission of Funk & Wagnalls Company.

II

LE SUEUR GORDON. _Cecil Rhodes._ 8vo, pp. 345. New York:
McBride, Nast & Co. $3.50.

Cecil Rhodes must be looked upon as the Clive of South Africa.
He found that country a land of wilderness and savagery. He
transformed it into a fair and industrious province. He
possessed the unscrupulous and relentless spirit of such
conquerors as Julius Cæsar, and he was at the same time a
financier of the widest resource. But some nefarious or alleged
nefarious transactions which stained his name as a business man
and a politician deprived him of royal recognition. He was not
only denied a title, but even failed to obtain a decoration, and
it was not until his death that a magnificent monument was
unveiled to his memory in the heart of Rhodesia, a province
which he had created and which was named after him.

Cecil John Rhodes (1853-1902) was born, like so many eminent
Englishmen, in the house of a clergyman. Into the forty-nine
years of his life he compressed a very stirring chapter of
British victory. There was something of the buccaneer in his
character when he prompted the notorious Jameson Raid and
eventually brought the British Government into conflict with the
cunning and ambition of Kruger--Oom Paul, as he was styled. For
the bitter and bloody Boer War the blame has always been laid
upon the shoulders of Rhodes.

Rhodes was an Oxford man and an omnivorous reader. He began by
working in the diamond-mines at Kimberley as a common laborer;
he ended by becoming manager of the Chartered Company, and
amassing a vast fortune.--_The Literary Digest_, April, 1914.[3]

[3] _Ibid._

III

_Sense and Sensibility._ A Novel. By Jane Austen. London:
Egerton. 1811.

Though inferior to _Pride and Prejudice_, this work is about as
well worth reading as any novel which, previous to its
publication, had been written in the English language. Its
interest depends, not on its descriptive and narrative power,
but on character portrayal and humor.

Though both lovable girls, the two heroines, Elinor and
Marianne, are as imperfect and as different as sisters are apt
to be in real life. Vulgar match-making Mrs. Jennings, as Austin
Dobson calls her, like many a flesh-and-blood dowager, at first
repels us by her foolish prattle and finally wins our respect by
her kindness. Sir John Middleton, with his horror of being
alone; Lady Middleton, with her horror of impropriety; Miss
Steele, who can always be made happy by being teased about the
Doctor; Lucy Steele, pretty, clever, not over-fastidious in her
principles, and abominably weak in her grammar; Robert Ferrars,
whose airs are justly punished by his marriage to Lucy; Mrs.
Ferrars, who contrives to be uniformly unamiable; Mrs. John
Dashwood, fit daughter to such a mother; and Mr. John Dashwood,
fit husband to such a wife--together form a gallery of portraits
of which any author might be proud.

The book, too, is rich in humor. Among other delightful things
we read of a will which, like almost every other will, gave as
much disappointment as pleasure; of a child of three who
possesses the usual charms of that age, an imperfect
articulation, an earnest desire of having his own way, many
cunning tricks, and a great deal of noise; of apricot marmalade
applied successfully as a remedy for a bruised temple; of a
company who met to eat, drink, and laugh together, to play at
cards or consequences, or any other game that was sufficiently
noisy; of a husband who is always making remarks which his wife
considers so droll but cannot remember; of Constantia wine,
which is equally good for colicky gout and broken hearts; of a
face of strong natural sterling insignificance; of a girl who
was pleased that a man had called and still more pleased that
she had missed him; of a woman of few words, for, unlike people
in general, she proportioned them to the number of her ideas;
of a newspaper item that interested nobody except those who knew
its contents before; and of a man who was perfectly the
gentleman in his behavior to guests and only occasionally rude
to his wife and mother-in-law.

It is true that the two heroes are not very heroic, Edward
Ferrars being only a curate and Col. Brandon a poor old man of
36 with a flannel waistcoat; but the latter is pretty thoroughly
the gentleman and the former gives up a fortune of 30,000 pounds
in order to marry a girl whom he does not love, thereby
furnishing, if not an example of good sense, at least an
agreeable contrast to Marianne's lover, Willoughby, who marries
a girl whom he does not love in order to get the money which he
is too genteel to earn.

On the whole, it is a wonderful book to have been written by a
girl of twenty-one.[4]

[4] Reprinted, by permission of The Macmillan Company, from the introduction of _Sense and Sensibility_, edited by Edwin L. Miller.

III. Notes, Queries, and Exercises

1. Among the important functions of a newspaper is the task of
announcing the appearance of new books, describing their
contents, and commenting on their merits. The style of such
notices should, above everything else, be clear. Most of them
are unfortunately disfigured by a jargon which repels readers
instead of inducing them to peruse the books reviewed.

2. What information should the heading of a book notice furnish?

3. Model I is an excellent example of what a review in a single
paragraph should be. The first sentence bridges the intellectual
and geographical space between the United States and Argentina,
between the reader and the subject, which is just what an
introduction should do. The second sentence describes the
country in general terms, ending in a clause that leads directly
to the most striking single fact about Argentina, its importance
as an agricultural country. The three sentences that follow give
concrete facts in support of this clause. The final sentence
drives home the point stated in the first.

4. Discuss the meaning and etymology of "dissipate," "Rio Grande,"
"annually," "approximate," "exports," "enterprise."

5. Point out one restrictive and one non-restrictive clause.

6. Describe orally the location and character of the Rio Grande,
Mexico, the Panama Canal, the Atlantic, the Andes, the Tropic of
Capricorn, the British, and the Straits of Magellan.

7. What figure of speech have we in the phrase, "the Amazing
Argentine?"

8. In Model II we have an illustration of a biographical review in
three paragraphs. It presents a vivid picture of Cecil Rhodes in
spite of the fact that it is not well organized. Try the
experiment of rewriting it according to this plan:
Par. I--Introduction, or Bridge; Par. II--Rhodes's Services to
Mankind; Par. III--Rhodes's Faults; Par. IV--Rhodes's Private
Life.

9. Find in the model an example of alliteration and an example of
antithesis.

10. Explain the allusions in "Clive," "Julius Cæsar," "buccaneer,"
"Jameson Raid," "Kruger," "Boer War," and "Oxford."

11. Define "financier," "nefarious," "politician," "notorious,"
"ambition," and "omnivorous." From what language do these words
come?

12. Analyze Model III as I and II have already been analyzed for
you.

13. Find in III an antithesis and an alliteration.

14. Which of the books do you wish most to read? Why?

15. Do these models observe the law of presenting concrete rather
than abstract statements?

16. Make a list of the books you have read, putting in one column
the books of travel, into another the biographies, and into a
third the novels.

17. Choose one of these as the subject of a review which you are to
write.

IV. Oral Composition

In preparing for this observe the following points:

(a) Remember that your main purpose is to persuade others to read
the book.

(b) In your first paragraph make a bridge from the minds of your
audience to the book.

(c) In the body of your review describe concretely the one most
interesting feature of the work.

(d) In your last paragraph restate the idea of the first but do
it in some other form.

V. Written Composition

Concentrate your attention on perfection of sentence structure.

VI. Suggested Time Schedule

_Week I_ _Week II_

_Monday_ --Dictation Oral Composition.
_Tuesday_ --Dictation. Oral Composition.
_Wednesday_--Notes, Queries, Exercises. Written Composition.
_Thursday_ --Notes, Queries, Exercises. Revision.
_Friday_ --Speaking. Program.

VII. Suggested Reading

1. Macaulay's _Frederic the Great_, _Clive_, and _Hastings_. 2. Mark Twain's _Roughing It_. 3. Scott's _Ivanhoe_.

VIII. Memorize

GUILIELMUS REX

The folk who lived in Shakespeare's day
And saw that gentle figure pass
By London Bridge, his frequent way--
They little knew what man he was.

The pointed beard, the courteous mien,
The equal port to high and low,
All this they saw or might have seen--
But not the light behind the brow!

The doublet's modest gray or brown,
The slender sword-hilt's plain device,
What sign had these for prince or clown?
Few turned, or none, to scan him twice.

Yet 'twas the king of England's kings!
The rest with all their pomps and trains
Are mouldered, half-remembered things--
'Tis he alone that lives and reigns!
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH.