Page 7 Advertisements Column 5

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9594, 8 December 1896, Page 7

i THE PRESS." NEW SERIAL STORY. TN THIS WEEK'S ISSUE OF THE "WEEKLY PRESS" CONTINUES THE PUBLICATION OF A NEW SERIAL STOBY, BY lAN MACLAREN, THE MOST POPULAR NOVELIST OF THE DAY. "KATE CARNEGIE, ,, BY lAN MACLAREN, Author of " Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush " and "The Days of Auld Lang Syne." Readers of the other works of this most popular of modern authors will be delighted to be afforded another chance of following the fortunes of the residents of that famous village, Drumtochty, which has attained as wide a celebrity as the " Thrums " of J. M. Barrie. Lan Maolaren's previous stories have had an extraordinary and almost unprecedented sale throughout the Englishspeaking world. More than 70,000 copies of " Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush," and 60,000 copies of "The Days of Auld Lang Syne " have been sold, and so great was hie popularity by the time the latter book was published, that his publishers cheerfully allowed him a royalty of 2s per oopy, co that he has already received £6000, and the book is still selling. This is not to be wondered at, when the nature of the stories themselves is considered. They co impress the reader with their absolute truthfulness, that one could be sure, if he did not know, that the author was a child of the village he depicts, and that as a loyal Scot he has the deepest love for hie country and her people. And yet they are so written that they appeal as strongly to those born South of the Tweed as to the author's countrymen, of which their immense circulation in England is ample proof. Speaking of his previous works the London " Spectator" says :—" As an artist in Scotch character, of the sort that is found in country villages, Mr Maclaren has no superior among his contemporaries, ambitious and able as several of these are." The "Athenceum," referring to lan Maclartsn's "The Days of Auld Lang Syne," says :—" Mr Maclabek has done a good piece of work. There is a depth and force as weft as tenderness in the writer's appreciation of country life in his native land." Another journal remarks:—" lan MacliAren's stories are as fine an interpretation as we have yet had of the real inner spirit and life of rural Scotland. . . . His pictures are marvels of idealistic charm— their charm is their truth. The author knows the people as only a Minister or a Doctor can : he looks with a keen eye, tempered with kindliness and humour; he uses the tongue of the people as one to whom it is native—he plays with it,' and it becomes picturesque, delicate, pathetic, pregnant in his hands. ,, lan MaoljAekn's hand has not lost its cunning since he wrote the books referred oby these critics. All the charm of his previous work will be found in "KATE CARNEGIE," which, indeed, we venture to assert, contains some character sketches unrivalled for beauty in his whole gallery. The character of Kate Carnegie herself, the daughter of the old Indian General, and the descendant of an ancient Highland family, with her wilful beauty, her pride of race, and her womanly tenderness, is one of the finest poi-traits Mr Maclabkn has yet drawn. The young minister, Carmichoel, is another example of the author's power of character drawing. The finest piece of work of. thi style, however, to be found in ",&ATE ( CARNEGIE" is the magnificent old minister, Dr. Davidson, in whom lan Maclaren has given us a character simple, strong and touching, which is worthy to live with the great characters of fiction. Along with these are a host of inimitable subordinate characters, with' some of whom, such as Hillocks, Drumabengh, Dr. Maclure, Mrs the "sermon taster," John, the "minister's man," and others, lan Maolabbn's readers are already well acquainted. ▲ LIBERAL INSTALMENT, APPEARS XHIS WEEK. "KATE. CARNEGIE, ,, BY lAN MACLARKN, Author of "Beside the Bonnie Brier Bnah" and *.' The Days of Auld Lug Syne,IS NOW nr nr* "WEEKLY PRESS." \ v \ \