Mr. JAMES LANE ALLEN'S NOVELS
The Choir Invisible
"One reads the story for the story's sake, and then re-reads the book out of pure delight in its beauty. The story is American to the very core… Mr. Allen stands to-day in the front rank of American novelists. The Choir Invisible will solidify a reputation already established and bring into clear light his rare gifts as an artist. For this latest story is as genuine a work of art as has come from an American hand." – Hamilton Mabie in The Outlook.
The Reign of Law. A Tale of the Kentucky Hempfields
"Mr. Allen has a style as original and almost as perfectly finished as Hawthorne's, and he has also Hawthorne's fondness for spiritual suggestion that makes all his stories rich in the qualities that are lacking in so many novels of the period… If read in the right way, it cannot fail to add to one's spiritual possessions." —San Francisco Chronicle.
The Mettle of the Pasture
"It may be that The Mettle of the Pasture will live and become a part of our literature; it certainly will live far beyond the allotted term of present-day fiction. Our principal concern is that it is a notable novel, that it ranks high in the range of American and English fiction, and that it is worth the reading, the re-reading, and the continuous appreciation of those who care for modern literature at its best." – By E. F. E. in the Boston Transcript.
Summer in Arcady. A Tale of Nature
"This story by James Lane Allen is one of the gems of the season. It is artistic in its setting, realistic and true to nature and life in its descriptions, dramatic, pathetic, tragic, in its incidents; indeed, a veritable masterpiece that must become classic. It is difficult to give an outline of the story; it is one of the stories which do not outline; it must be read." —Boston Daily Advertiser.
Shorter Stories
The Blue Grass Region of Kentucky
Flute and Violin, and Other Kentucky Tales
The Bride of the Mistletoe
A Kentucky Cardinal.
Aftermath. A Sequel to "A Kentucky Cardinal"
Mr. F. MARION CRAWFORD'S NOVELS
Mr. Crawford has no equal as a writer of brilliant cosmopolitan fiction, in which the characters really belong to the chosen scene and the story interest is strong. His novels possess atmosphere in a high degree.
Mr. Isaacs (India)
Its scenes are laid in Simla, chiefly. This is the work which first placed its author among the most brilliant novelists of his day.
Greifenstein (The Black Forest)
"… Another notable contribution to the literature of the day. It possesses originality in its conception and is a work of unusual ability. Its interest is sustained to the close, and it is an advance even on the previous work of this talented author. Like all Mr. Crawford's work, this novel is crisp, clear, and vigorous, and will be read with a great deal of interest." —New York Evening Telegram.
Zoroaster (Persia)
"It is a drama in the force of its situations and in the poetry and dignity of its language; but its men and women are not men and women of a play. By the naturalness of their conversation and behavior they seem to live and lay hold of our human sympathy more than the same characters on a stage could possibly do." —The New York Times.
The Witch of Prague (Bohemia)
"A fantastic tale," illustrated by W. J. Hennessy.
"The artistic skill with which this extraordinary story is constructed and carried out is admirable and delightful… Mr. Crawford has scored a decided triumph, for the interest of the tale is sustained throughout… A very remarkable, powerful, and interesting story." —New York Tribune.
Paul Patoff (Constantinople)
"Mr. Crawford has a marked talent for assimilating local color, not to make mention of a broader historical sense. Even though he may adopt, as it is the romancer's right to do, the extreme romantic view of history, it is always a living and moving picture that he evolves for us, varied and stirring." —New York Evening Post.
Marietta (Venice)
"No living writer can surpass Mr. Crawford in the construction of a complicated plot and the skilful unravelling of the tangled skein." —Chicago Record-Herald.
"He has gone back to the field of his earlier triumphs, and has, perhaps, scored the greatest triumph of them all." —New York Herald.
THE SARACINESCA SERIES
Saracinesca
"The work has two distinct merits, either of which would serve to make it great, – that of telling a perfect story in a perfect way, and of giving a graphic picture of Roman society in the last days of the Pope's temporal power… The story is exquisitely told." —Boston Traveler.
Sant' Ilario. A Sequel to "Saracinesca"
"A singularly powerful and beautiful story… It fulfils every requirement of artistic fiction. It brings out what is most impressive in human action, without owing any of its effectiveness to sensationalism or artifice. It is natural, fluent in evolution, accordant with experience, graphic in description, penetrating in analysis, and absorbing in interest." —New York Tribune.
Don Orsino. A Sequel to "Sant' Ilario"
"Perhaps the cleverest novel of the year… There is not a dull paragraph in the book, and the reader may be assured that once begun, the story of Don Orsino will fascinate him until its close." —The Critic.
Taquisara
"To Mr. Crawford's Roman novels belongs the supreme quality of uniting subtly drawn characters to a plot of uncommon interest." —Chicago Tribune.
Corleone
"Mr. Crawford is the novelist born … a natural story-teller, with wit, imagination, and insight added to a varied and profound knowledge of social life." —The Inter-Ocean, Chicago.
Casa Braccio. In two volumes Illustrated by A. Castaigne
"Mr. Crawford's books have life, pathos, and insight; he tells a dramatic story with many exquisite touches." —New York Sun.
The White Sister
NOVELS OF ROMAN SOCIAL LIFE
A Roman Singer
"One of the earliest and best works of this famous novelist… None but a genuine artist could have made so true a picture of human life, crossed by human passions and interwoven with human weakness. It is a perfect specimen of literary art." —The Newark Advertiser.
Marzio's Crucifix
"We have repeatedly had occasion to say that Mr. Crawford possesses in an extraordinary degree the art of constructing a story. It is as if it could not have been written otherwise, so naturally does the story unfold itself, and so logical and consistent is the sequence of incident after incident. As a story, Marzio's Crucifix is perfectly constructed." —New York Commercial Advertiser.
Heart of Rome. A Tale of the Lost Water
"Mr. Crawford has written a story of absorbing interest, a story with a genuine thrill in it; he has drawn his characters with a sure and brilliant touch, and he has said many things surpassingly well." —New York Times Saturday Review.
Cecilia. A Story of Modern Rome
"That F. Marion Crawford is a master of mystery needs no new telling… His latest novel, Cecilia, is as weird as anything he has done since the memorable Mr. Isaacs… A strong, interesting, dramatic story, with the picturesque Roman setting beautifully handled as only a master's touch could do it." —Philadelphia Evening Telegraph.
Whosoever Shall Offend
"It is a story sustained from beginning to end by an ever increasing dramatic quality." —New York Evening Post.
Pietro Ghisleri
"The imaginative richness, the marvellous ingenuity of plot, the power and subtlety of the portrayal of character, the charm of the romantic environment, – the entire atmosphere, indeed, – rank this novel at once among the great creations." —The Boston Budget.
To Leeward
"The four characters with whose fortunes this novel deals are, perhaps, the most brilliantly executed portraits in the whole of Mr. Crawford's long picture gallery, while for subtle insight into the springs of human passion and for swift dramatic action none of the novels surpasses this one." —The News and Courier.
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 assimilative 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)
Khaled, a Tale of Arabia
"Two gems of subtle analysis of human passion 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 coarse and common material, the meanest surroundings, the most sordid material prospects, and out of the vehement passions which sometimes dominate all human beings to build up with these poor elements, scenes and passages 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 title 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, flashing 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.