New York Tribune

LIGHT READING FOR SUMMER.

THE FIRST OF THE "WAYSIDE SERIES"—GHOSTS IN THE AUGUST "ATLANTIC"—MR. HOWELLS'S AND MR. ALDRICH'S CONTRIBUTIONS.

Boston, Mass., July 6.—The first story in Messrs. Lockwood & Brooks's "Wayside Series" is soon to be published anonymously under the name, already announced, of "Nimport." I have no authority for the suggestion, but the title of the book, the names of the characters—Paul Fonde, Doctor Fonde, Criste Derrel, Miss Quilty, etc.—and the mode of developing incident all very strongly suggest H. E. Scudder as the possible author of this new venture. Readers of "The Dwellers in Five Sisters' Court" will recall a certain English local coloring in it which some critics reprehended in an American novel. There is a similar effect in "Nimport," which introduces us to a rich manufacturer's country-seat called Prescott Hall—a most tun-able title, as it will seem to some readers. At this Prescott Hall, moreover, there is a governess, Miss Peg Fonde, who feels a certain repulsion towards Dr. T. Jenwell, in the usual style of English governesses in novels, and ends by marrying him, after a good deal of annoyance from the lady who employs her and who is anxious to have the doctor marry her daughter. B. Nimport is apparently meant Boston, but in truth Nimport, or Boston, or whatever this cloud city may be, has not very much to do with the narrative, except that it gives opportunity for some amusing ridicule of the vagaries of a philosophical and strong-minded woman belonging to the class of Advanced Thinkers. There is a good deal of bright conversation in the book, the whole is written with ease and naturalness, and the persons have a strong air of reality. There is little that can be called factitious in "Nimport," and if it is a quiet beginning of the new series it is none the less a good corner-stone in some respects.

It is time to begin to look for a new Atlantic, the August issue being nearly ready. I do not know that ghosts have been found as appropriate to midsummer as to midwinter evenings; but there are to be two ghosts in The Atlantic for August. One of them is brought forward by Mrs. S. M. B. Piatt in two stanzas of verse, and the other gives occasion to a nineteen-page story entitled "How Capt. Aslett Floated the Ghost," by Will Wallace Harney. Mr. Howells begins in this number a new comedy, "A Counterfeit Presentment," which opens with a singular and interesting situation. I believe it is not a secret that this play is to be brought out on the stage next autumn, with Mr. Lawrence Barrett in the leading gentleman's part. But if the situation in these first scenes of the comedy is singular, I don't know how we shall express the oddity of the dilemma which Mr. Aldrich places before us in the second part of his "Queen of Sheba." The novelty of the incident there narrated is softened by its pathos, and the combination is too good to misfire by premature revelations. Notwithstanding the large share of fiction in the number, there seems to be a good proportion of stronger matter, comprising an essay by S. T. Perry—the initial article of the number—on "German Influence in English Literature," and one by Mr. E. P. Whipple, discussing "The Shadow on Dickens's Life."