"Clever and fascinating, as is everything by this writer."
Literary World--
"Decidedly pleasant reading, and calculated to further the author"s reputation as a bright and entertaining novelist."
A Famous Polish Novel.
ANIMA VILIS.
A TALE OF THE GREAT SIBERIAN STEPPE.
BY MARYA RODZIEWICZ.
TRANSLATED FROM THE POLISH BY COUNT S. C. DE SOISSONS.
WITH A FINE PHOTOGRAVURE PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR.
SECOND EDITION.
A FOREWORD ON "ANIMA VILIS."
"Anima Vilis" is a novel dealing with life in Siberia as it really is, not as we have hitherto imagined it, a land of knouts, inhuman Russian officials, and sundry other horrors. In his preface, Count de Soissons says--
"Desiring to destroy the false ideas concerning the Russian Empire that have become so deeply rooted in the minds of most persons, we decided that the best way to accomplish our purpose would be by a novel based on life in Siberia, and this novel was written by Miss Marya Rodziewicz, a noted Polish writer. It is well known that there is not much sympathy between the Russians and Poles. But, at the same time, there is an honesty of purpose in those serious and earnest Polish writers, which, notwithstanding the wrongs their country has suffered at the hands of the Russians, would prevent their stooping to falsify facts. Thus Miss M. Rodziewicz"s views of life in Siberia are more worthy of credence than the scribblings of those writers who, for the sake of creating a sensation, and its usual accompaniment, the desire of making money, relate blood-curdling stories of the barbarism of Russia."
SOME PRESS OPINIONS.
Leeds Mercury--
"An engrossing book. The story is a powerful one, and, breathing as it does the true life of the Siberian, is profoundly interesting."
Daily News--
"The book is well worth reading. Her descriptions are wonderfully suggestive."
Daily Telegraph--
"Deeply interesting."
New Age--
"Told with piercing vividness, "Anima Vilis" is so good and so finely done, that we sincerely hope to read more stories by so talented an author."
Review of the Week--
"Has the simplicity and directness typical of Slavonic literature. Its freshness and originality should stimulate translators to further explorations in literary Poland."
Literature--
"It has both power and charm."
CYRANO DE BERGERAC.
_A fascinating and powerful romance of this interesting personality._
CAPTAIN SATAN:
ADVENTURES OF CYRANO DE BERGERAC.
From the French of LOUIS GALLET.
_With special Photogravure Portrait of CYRANO DE BERGERAC._
SECOND EDITION.
"Captain Satan" forms a _romance d"aventure_ of the Dumasesque school, having the famous Cyrano de Bergerac for hero, and giving a vivid picture of the redoubtable hero, swashbuckler, poet, and philosopher.
The book has attained widespread popularity in France. There is a most enthralling and extremely powerful plot, while one exciting episode succeeds another in a fashion that holds the reader"s attention fascinated to the last page. The character of Cyrano, forming as it does a central figure around which everything turns, adds additional attractiveness to this unquestionably notable romance, since general interest in his remarkable personality has been so largely re-awakened by M. Coquelin"s and Mr. Charles Wyndham"s superb presentations of the character of M. Rostand"s famous play, the book will appeal to a still wider section of the reading public.
SOME PRESS OPINIONS.
Daily Chronicle--
"The author has the lightness of touch and sweep of imagination which impart a real thrilling vitality to the romantic novel."