The Romance of a Plain Man Part 66

A Lady of Rome

Via Crucis. A Romance of the Second Crusade.

"_Via Crucis...._ A tale of former days, possessing an air of reality and an absorbing interest such as few writers since Scott have been able to accomplish when dealing with historical characters."--_Boston Transcript._

In the Palace of the King (Spain)

"_In the Palace of the King_ is a masterpiece; there is a picturesqueness, a sincerity which will catch all readers in an agreeable storm of emotion, and even leave a hardened reviewer impressed and delighted."--_Literature_, London.

With the Immortals

"The strange central idea of the story could have occurred only to a writer whose mind was very sensitive to the current of modern thought and progress, while its execution, the setting it forth in proper literary clothing, could be successfully attempted only by one whose active literary ability should be fully equalled by his power of a.s.similative knowledge both literary and scientific, and no less by his courage and capacity for hard work. The book will be found to have a fascination entirely new for the habitual reader of novels. Indeed, Mr.

Crawford has succeeded in taking his readers quite above the ordinary plane of novel interest."--_Boston Advertiser._

Children of the King (Calabria)

"One of the most artistic and exquisitely finished pieces of work that Crawford has produced. The picturesque setting, Calabria and its surroundings, the beautiful Sorrento and the Gulf of Salerno, with the bewitching accessories that climate, sea, and sky afford, give Mr.

Crawford rich opportunities to show his rare descriptive powers. As a whole the book is strong and beautiful through its simplicity, and ranks among the choicest of the author's many fine productions."--_Public Opinion._

A Cigarette Maker's Romance (Munich)

and Khaled, a Tale of Arabia

"Two gems of subtle a.n.a.lysis of human pa.s.sion and motive."--_Times._

"The interest is unflagging throughout. Never has Mr. Crawford done more brilliant realistic work than here. But his realism is only the case and cover for those intense feelings which, placed under no matter what humble conditions, produce the most dramatic and the most tragic situations.... This is a secret of genius, to take the most coa.r.s.e and common material, the meanest surroundings, the most sordid material prospects, and out of the vehement pa.s.sions which sometimes dominate all human beings to build up with these poor elements, scenes and pa.s.sages the dramatic and emotional power of which at once enforce attention and awaken the profoundest interest."--_New York Tribune._

Arethusa (Constantinople)

Dr. Cooper, in _The Bookman_, once gave to Mr. Crawford the t.i.tle which best marks his place in modern fiction: "the prince of storytellers."

A Tale of a Lonely Parish

"It is a pleasure to have anything so perfect of its kind as this brief and vivid story.... It is doubly a success, being full of human sympathy, as well as thoroughly artistic in its nice balancing of the unusual with the commonplace, the clever juxtaposition of innocence and guilt, comedy and tragedy, simplicity and intrigue."--_Critic._

Dr. Claudius. A True Story

The scene changes from Heidelberg to New York, and much of the story develops during the ocean voyage.

"There is a satisfying quality in Mr. Crawford's strong, vital, forceful stories."--_Boston Herald._

An American Politician. The scenes are laid in Boston

"It need scarcely be said that the story is skilfully and picturesquely written, portraying sharply individual characters in well-defined surroundings."--_New York Commercial Advertiser._

The Three Fates

"Mr. Crawford has manifestly brought his best qualities as a student of human nature and his finest resources as a master of an original and picturesque style to bear upon this story. Taken for all in all, it is one of the most pleasing of all his productions in fiction, and it affords a view of certain phases of American, or perhaps we should say of New York, life that have not hitherto been treated with anything like the same adequacy and felicity."--_Boston Beacon._

Marion Darche

"Full enough of incident to have furnished material for three or four stories.... A most interesting and engrossing book. Every page unfolds new possibilities, and the incidents multiply rapidly."--_Detroit Free Press._

"We are disposed to rank _Marion Darche_ as the best of Mr. Crawford's American stories."--_The Literary World._

Katharine Lauderdale

The Ralstons. A Sequel to "Katharine Lauderdale"

"Mr. Crawford at his best is a great novelist, and in _Katharine Lauderdale_ we have him at his best."--_Boston Daily Advertiser._

"A most admirable novel, excellent in style, flas.h.i.+ng with humor, and full of the ripest and wisest reflections upon men and women."--_The Westminster Gazette._

"It is the first time, we think, in American fiction that any such breadth of view has shown itself in the study of our social framework."--_Life._