Rodman the Keeper : Southern Section. By Constance Fenimore Woolson.
(D. Appleton and Co., New York.)—These are sketches of life in the Southern States, picturing meetly with a quite remarkable power the condition of things which has resulted from the war. The fierce, implacable resentment which burns in the hearts of those who remember the sacrifices and sufferings of the war is graphically de- scribed ; and the writer contrives more than one dramatic situation of truly pathetic interest, by setting in opposition to this a love which, springing up unbidden between conquerors and conquered, is itself sometimes vanquished, sometimes victorious. For the most part, Miss Woolson loves to write in the minor key. "In the Cotton Country," a story, true in all but the names, she assures us, is a tragic tale which justifies the tone of the whole book. Perhaps the most powerful of the sketches which the volume contains is "The South Devil." The "Devil," it should be explained, is a swamp, to the border of which a young Northerner comes, in the hope of
giving new life to a young kinsman stricken to death by the keen air of New England. He does it not for love of the young man, but for love of a girl who has rejected him, and for whom be makes the sacrifice of giving up all to save the life of the lover whom she pre- fers. The picture of the swamp is wonderfully vivid. Indeed, nature is described throughout this volume with touches of remark- able skill. The book will find, we hope, an English publisher.
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