REVIEWS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11511, 18 March 1905, Page 7

REVIEWS.

— -m- O "THE BELL IN THE FOG AND OTHER

STORIES"

(By Gertrude Atherton.) The collection of ten tales contained in the "The Bell in the vtfog and Other Stories," displays to a remarkable degree the versatility of the writer. The three Jfiifct stories in the book have a more or fct-ss common interest in that they der.l with tlrtospphical and supernatural eubjects, with the scenes laid in Hertfordsiiore, Yorkshire, ' and Brittany. "Tho Gre«t€sfc Good of the Greatest Number," ■which follows, tells how a New York physician, out of regard for the husband, sacrifices the life of a wife whose reason hrs beea deranged by morphine. "The Monarch of a Small Survey" and "Talbot of Urusla" are Californian stories, the former giving the history of two women whose lives were ruined by the selfishness of a miserly millionaire ; and 'che latter recording the unrequited*love of an English settler for a beautiful Californian. "The Tragedy of a Snob" relates the attempts made by a New York bank clerk to enter the select circle of "Cottagers" at Newport, and the painful awakening that followed. "Crowned With One Crest" has for heroine an imaginative American woman, and. for theme, her. second marriage with an Englishman. A perfect marriage forms the subject matter of "Death and the Woman." ; and "A Prologue" describes in dramatic form the fateful meeting between the father and mother of Alexander Hamilton, the American statesman, during the historic hurricane that swept over the West ladies at that period.