It was no longer a lover, it was an old friend who gave the caress.

“But tea is waiting,” he said, gently; and we went together to the drawing-room.

At the door I met Macha, and the nurse with Vania. I took the child in my arms, wrapped up the little bare feet, and, holding it close to my heart, barely touched its lips with a light kiss. Almost asleep as it was, it moved its little arms, stretched out the crumpled fingers, and opened its bewildered eyes, as if trying to find or remember something; all at once its eyes fell on me, a look of intelligence sparkled in them, and the pink pursed-up lips lengthened in a baby smile. “You are mine, mine!” thought I, with a delicious thrill running through me, and as I strained it to my heart I was half afraid of hurting it with my eager embrace. Over and over I kissed its cold little feet, its breast, its arms, and head with the scant covering of down. My husband came up to us, quickly drew the wrapping over the baby’s face, then, drawing it away again:

“Ivan Sergevitch!” he said with finger under the little chin.

This day ended my romance with my husband. The old love remained, and the dear remembrance of what could never come back to me; but a new love for my children and my children’s father, began another life and another way of happiness, up to this hour unending ... for at last I know that in home, and in the pure joys of home will be found—real happiness!

THE END.

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OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

“A story of Russia in the time of Napoleon’s wars. It is a story of the family rather than of the field, and is charming in its delineations of quaint Russian customs. It is a novel of absorbing interest, full of action and with a well managed plot; a book well worth reading.”—Philadelphia Enquirer.

“The story of ‘War and Peace’ ranks as the greatest of Slavic historical novels. It is intensely dramatic in places and the battle scenes are marvels of picturesque description. At other points the vein is quiet and philosophical, and the reader is held by the soothing charm that is in complete contrast with the action and energy of battle.”—Observer, Utica, N.Y.

“War and Peace is a historical novel and is extremely interesting, not only in its description of the times of the great invasion eighty years ago, but in its vivid pictures of life and character in Russia.”—Journal of Commerce, New York.

“On general principles the historical novel is neither valuable as fact nor entertaining as fiction. But ‘War and Peace’ is a striking exception to this rule. It deals with the most impressive and dramatic period of European history. It reproduces a living panorama of scene, and actors, and circumstance idealized into the intense and artistic life of imaginative composition, and written with a brilliancy of style and epigrammatic play of thought, a depth of significance, that render the story one of the most fascinating and absorbing.”—Boston Evening Traveller.

“The Cossacks” forms the culmination of the period in which he photographed with miraculous realism and no definite purpose, detached pictures of life and studies of the affections, and the period in which he began to see and suggest the spiritual meaning of and the chain of ultimate purpose binding together the panorama of human existence. The book is an idyl of semi-barbarous life and yet the hero begins to struggle with the problems that puzzled Sergius, that Levin half solved, and from which Tolstoi himself escapes in a Quaker creed.

THE
E B E R S   G A L L E R Y
A COLLECTION OF PAINTINGS
ILLUSTRATING THE
ROMANCES OF GEORG EBERS
BY THE FOLLOWING ARTISTS
L. Alma-Tadema, W. A. Beer, W. Gentz, P. Grot-Johann,
H. Kaulbach, Ferd. Keller, O. Knille, F. Simm,
Laura Tadema, E. Teschendorff, P. Thumann.

TWENTY ILLUSTRATIONS
WITH DESCRIPTIVE LETTER-PRESS
Printed from handsome large new type on plate-paper
Photographic Reproduction by Friedrich Bruckmann of Munich

“This romance has much value, apart from its interest as a narrative. The learned author, who has made the Land of the Nile an object of special study and research, throws a clear, steady light on one of those complicated periods of history when nationality seems submerged in the conflicting interests of sects and factions. The history of Egypt towards the middle of the seventh century, A. D., forms a sort of historical whirlpool. The tide of Moslem invasion and the counter-current of patriotism were temporarily swayed by the intermingling currents of sectarianism, ecclesiasticism and individual self-interest.

“All the leading characters are typical of these contending forces, and also display an unreasoning impulsiveness in both love and hatred, characteristic of a tropical clime.

“The Egyptian heathen, the Egyptian Christian, the Greek Christian, the Moslem and Ethiopian show the feelings peculiar to their political conditions by word and act, thus making their relationship to one another very distinct, and though not an historical study, at least a study of the probabilities of that epoch. It is also a reliable picture of the manners, customs and civilization of a period less generally known than those remote, and consequently more attractive periods of the building of the pyramids, and of the Pharoahs.

“The portrayal of individual character and arrangement of incidents are necessarily secondary to the higher aims of this entertaining and instructive romance. It is only towards the end of the second volume that the significance of the title becomes apparent. The ‘Bride’ was a Greek Christian doomed by the superstitious authorities to be drowned in the Nile as a sacrifice to appease the anger of the creative powers, supposed to be withholding the usual overflow of its waters. She escaped her watery fate, and her rival, an unprincipled heiress, became a voluntary sacrifice through vanity and despair. This author has already won much renown by previous romances founded on interesting epochs of Egyptian history.”—Daily Alta, California.

“There must always be some difference of opinion concerning the right of the romancer to treat of sacred events and to introduce sacred personages into his story. Some hold that any attempt to embody an idea of our Saviour’s character, experiences, sayings and teachings in the form of fiction must have the effect of lowering our imaginative ideal, and rendering trivial and common-place that which in the real Gospel is spontaneous, inspired and sublime. But to others an historical novel like the ‘Martyr of Golgotha’ comes like a revelation, opening fresh vistas of thought, filling out blanks and making clear what had hitherto been vague and unsatisfactory, quickening insight and sympathy, and actually heightening the conception of divine traits. The author gives also a wide survey of the general history of the epoch and shows the various shaping causes which were influencing the rise and development of the new religion in Palestine. There is, indeed, an astonishing vitality and movement throughout the work, and, elaborate though the plot is, with all varieties and all contrasts of people and conditions, with constant shiftings of the scene, the story yet moves, and moves the interest of the reader too, along the rapid current of events towards the powerful culmination. The writer uses the Catholic traditions, and in many points interprets the story in a way which differs altogether from that familiar to Protestants: for example, making Mary Magdalen the same Mary who was the sister of Lazarus and Martha, and who sat listening at the Saviour’s feet. But in general, although there is a free use made of Catholic legends and traditions, their effort is natural and pleasing. The romance shows a degree of a southern fervor which is foreign to English habit, but the flowery, poetic style—although it at first repels the reader—is so individual, so much a part of the author, that it is soon accepted as the naive expression of a mind kindled and carried away by its subject. Spanish literature has of late given us a variety of novels and romances, all of which are in their way so good that we must believe that there is a new generation of writers in Spain who are discarding the worn-out forms and traditions, and are putting fresh life and energy into works which will give pleasure to the whole world of readers.”—Philadelphia American, March 5, 1887.

“It deals, in the main, with the cruel bondage of the Israelites in Egypt, and is remarkably varied in incident and impressive in dramatic power. The interest is uncommonly exciting, and is sustained with great skill to the very end. A fine poetic feeling pervades the narrative, and the descriptive portions of the book often glow with picturesque splendor. The work is also very attractive in the cleverness and the vividness with which the manners and people of ancient Egypt are depicted, showing in this aspect careful thought and study. The story may take a foremost rank in the long line of German romances which have aimed at reproducing the life of antiquity.”—Boston Saturday Evening Gazette, May 23, 1886.

“The ‘Chaldean Magician’ is a tale of Rome in the days of the Emperor Diocletian, and is an expose of the so-called magical art of that period. The love story which runs through it will please the sentimental, while the pictures given of Roman life and society will interest the general reader.”—Chicago Evening Journal.

“We owe to Eckstein the brilliant romance of ‘Quintus Claudius,’ which Clara Bell has done well to translate for us, for it is worthy of place beside the Emperor of Ebers and the Aspasia of Hamerling. It is a story of Rome in the reign of Domitian, and the most noted characters of the time figure in its pages, which are a series of picturesque descriptions of Roman life and manners in the imperial city, and in those luxurious retreats at Baiae and elsewhere to which the wealthy Romans used to retreat from the heats of summer. It is full of stirring scenes in the streets, in the palaces, in the temples, and in the amphitheatre, and the actors therein represent every phase of Roman character, from the treacherous and cowardly Domitian and the vile Domitia down to the secret gatherings of the new sect and their exit from life in the blood-soaked sands of the arena, where they were torn in pieces by the beasts of the desert. The life and the manners of all classes at this period were never painted with a bolder pencil than by Eckstein in this masterly romance, which displays as much scholarship as invention.”—Mail and Express, N. Y.

“These neat volumes contain a story first published in German. It is written in that style which Ebers has cultivated so successfully. The place is Rome; the time, that of Domitian at the end of the first century. The very careful study of historical data, is evident from the notes at the foot of nearly every page. The author attempted the difficult task of presenting in a single story the whole life of Rome, the intrigues of that day which compassed the overthrow of Domitian, and the deep fervor and terrible trials of the Christians in the last of the general persecutions. The court, the army, the amphitheatre, the catacombs, the evil and the good of Roman manhood and womanhood—all are here. And the work is done with power and success. It is a book for every Christian and for every student, a book of lasting value, bringing more than one nation under obligation to its author.”—New Jerusalem Magazine, Boston, Mass.

“A new Romance of Ancient Times! The success of Ernst Eckstein’s new novel, ‘Quintus Claudius,’ which recently appeared in Vienna, may fairly be called phenomenal, critics and the public unite in praising the work.”—Grazer Morgenpost.

“‘Quintus Claudius’ is a finished work of art, capable of bearing any analysis, a literary production teeming with instruction and interest, full of plastic forms, and rich in the most dramatic changes of mood.”—Pester Lloyd.

“The date of ‘Prusias’ is the latter half of the first century B. C. Rome is waging her tedious war with Mithridates. There are also risings in Spain, and the home army is badly depleted. Prusias comes to Capua as a learned Armenian, the tutor of a noble pupil in one of the aristocratic households. Each member of this circle is distinct. Some of the most splendid traits of human nature develop among these grand statesmen and their dignified wives, mothers, and daughters. The ideal Roman maiden is Psyche; but she has a trace of Greek blood and of the native gentleness. Of a more interesting type is Fannia, who might, minus her slaves and stola, pass for a modern and saucy New York beauty. Her wit, spirit, selfishness, and impulsive magnanimity might easily have been a nineteenth-century evolution. In the family to which Prusias comes are two sons, one of military leanings, the other a student. Into the ear of the latter Prusias whispers the real purpose of his coming to Italy. He is an Armenian and in league with Mithridates for the reduction of Roman rule. The unity which the Senate has tried to extend to the freshly-conquered provinces of Italy is a thing of slow growth. Prusias by his strategy and helped by Mithridates’s gold, hopes to organize slaves and disaffected provincials into a force which will oblige weakened Rome to make terms, one of which shall be complete emancipation and equality of every man before the law. His harangues are in lofty strain, and, save that he never takes the coarse, belligerent tone of our contemporaries, these speeches might have been made by one of our own Abolitionists. The one point that Prusias never forgets is personal dignity and a regal consideration for his friends. But after all, this son of the gods is befooled by a woman, a sinuous and transcendently ambitious Roman belle, the second wife of the dull and trustful prefect of Capua; for this tiny woman had all men in her net whom she found it useful to have there.

“The daughter of the prefect—hard, homely-featured, and hating the supple stepmother with an unspeakable hate, tearing her beauty at last like a tigress and so causing her death—is a repulsive but very strong figure. The two brothers who range themselves on opposite sides in the servile war make another unforgettable picture; and the beautiful slave Brenna, who follows her noble lover into camp, is a spark of light against the lurid background. The servile movement is combined with the bold plans of the Thracian Spartacus. He is a good figure and perpetually surprises us with his keen foresight and disciplinary power.

“Since the appearance of ‘Debit and Credit’ we have not seen a German novel that can rank, in the line struck out by that famous work, with ‘The Will,’ by Ernst Eckstein. It is a vivid picture of German city life, and the characters, whether quaint, commonplace, tragical, or a mixture of all three, are admirably drawn. All the German carefulness is in Eckstein’s work, but there is besides a sparkle and verve entirely French—and French of the best kind.”—Catholic Mirror, Baltimore.

“The chief value of the book is in its well-drawn and strong pictures of life in both German cities and villages, and Clara Bell, has, as usual, proved herself a mistress of the German Tongue.”—Sunday Star, Providence.

“Ernst Eckstein, hitherto known as a writer of classical romance, now tries his hand upon a genre story of German life. To our mind, it is his most successful work.”—Bulletin, San Francisco, Cal.

“The present work is entitled ‘The Will,’ and is written by Ernst Eckstein, the author of the striking historical novel, Quintus Claudius. The name of Clara Bell as the translator from the German is assurance enough of the excellence of its rendering into English. The plot of the story is not a novel one, but it is skillfully executed, and the whole tale is developed with much dramatic power.”—Boston Zion’s Herald.

“‘The Will,’ by Eckstein, is the latest and best work of its author. The scene, the people, the events of the story are new, the plot is ingenious, and the action rapid and exciting enough to please the most jaded novel reader. The character of schoolmaster Heinzius would alone make the reputation of a new writer, and there are other sketches from life none the less masterly. Ernst Eckstein excels in heroines, of whom there are several in the book—all clearly defined—contending for the sympathy of the reader.”—The Journal of Commerce, New York.

“If Italian literature includes any more such unique and charming stories as this one, it is to be hoped that translators will not fail to discover them to the American public. The ‘Eleventh Commandment’ deals with a variety of topics—the social intrigues necessary to bring about preferment in political life, a communal order, an adventurous unconventional heiress, and her acquiescent, good-natured uncle, and most cleverly are the various elements combined, the whole forming an excellent and diverting little story. The advent of a modern Eve in the masculine paradise (?) established at the Convent of San Bruno is fraught with weighty consequences, not only to the individual members of the brotherhood, but to the well-being of the community itself. The narrative of M’lle Adela’s adventures is blithely told, and the moral deducible therefrom for men is that, on occasion, flight is the surest method of combating temptation.”—Art Interchange, New York.

“Very entertaining is the story of ‘The Eleventh Commandment,’ ingeniously conceived and very cleverly executed.”—The Critic, New York.

“If ‘The Eleventh Commandment,’ the previous work of Barrili, was a good three-act play, ‘A Whimsical Wooing’ is a sparkling comedietta. It is one situation, a single catastrophe, yet, like a bit of impressionist painting of the finer sort, it reveals in a flash all the possibilities of the scene. The hero, Roberto Fenoglio, a man of wealth, position, and accomplishments, finds himself at the end of his resources for entertainment or interest. Hopelessly bored, he abandons himself to the drift of chance, and finds himself, in no longer space of time than from midnight to daylight—where and how, the reader will thank us for not forestalling his pleasure in finding out for himself.”—The Nation, New York.

“‘A Whimsical Wooing’ is the richly-expressive title under which ‘Clara Bell’ introduces a cleverly-narrated episode by Anton Giulio Barrili to American readers. It is a sketch of Italian life, at once rich and strong, but nevertheless discreet in sentiment and graceful in diction. It is the old story of the fallacy of trusting to a proxy in love matters.”—Boston Post.

“‘Ernestine’ is a work of positive genius. An English critic has likened the conception of the heroine in her childhood to George Eliot’s Maggie Tulliver, and truly there is a certain resemblance; but there is in the piece a much stronger suggestion of George Eliot’s calm mastery of the secret springs of human action, and George Eliot’s gift of laying bare the life of a human soul, than of likeness between particular characters or situations here and those with which we are familiar in George Eliot’s works.”—New York Evening Post.

“‘The Hour Will Come’ is the title of a translation by Clara Bell from the German original of Wilhelmine von Hillern, author of that beautiful romance ‘Geier-Wally.’ ‘The Hour Will Come’ is hardly less interesting, its plot being one of the strongest and most pathetic that could well be imagined. The time is the Middle Ages, and Frau von Hillern has achieved a remarkable success in reproducing the rudeness, the picturesqueness and the sombre coloring of those days. Those who take up ‘The Hour Will Come’ will not care to lay it down again until they have read it through.”—Baltimore Gazette.

“Mary J. Safford translates acceptably a very charming short story from the German of Wilhelmine von Hillern. If it was not told by the sacristan of Breisach, it deserves to have been. It has the full flavor of old German and English love tales, such as have been crystallized in the old ballads. The Emperor, the gifted boy, his struggles with the stupidity of his townsmen, his apparently hopeless love above him; these form the old delightful scene, set in a Düreresque border. There are touches here and there which refer to the present. The sixteenth century tale has a political moral that will appeal to Germans who believe that Alsatia, once German in heart as well as in tongue, ought to be held by force to the Fatherland till she forgets her beloved France.”—N. Y. Times.

“We have read his work conscientiously, and, we confess, with profit. Never have we had so clear an insight into the manners, thoughts, and feelings of the ancient Greeks. No study has made us so familiar with the age of Pericles. We recognize throughout that the author is master of the period of which he treats. Moreover, looking back upon the work from the end to the beginning, we clearly perceive in it a complete unity of purpose not at all evident during the reading.”

“Hamerling’s Aspasia, herself the most beautiful woman in all Hellas, is the apostle of beauty and of joyousness, the implacable enemy of all that is stern and harsh in life. Unfortunately, morality is stern, and had no place among Aspasia’s doctrines. This ugly fact, Landor has thrust as far into the background as possible. Hamerling obtrudes it. He does not moralize, he neither condemns nor praises; but like a fate, silent, passionless, and resistless, he carries the story along, allows the sunshine for a time to silver the turbid stream, the butterflies and gnats to flutter above it in rainbow tints, and then remorselessly draws over the landscape gray twilight. He but follows the course of history; yet the absolute pitilessness with which he does it is almost terrible.”—Extracts from Review in Yale Literary Magazine.

“No more beautiful chapter can be found in any book of this age than that in which Pericles and Aspasia are described as visiting the poet Sophocles in the garden on the bank of the Cephissus.”—Utica Morning Herald.

“It is one of the great excellencies of this romance, this lofty song of the genius of the Greeks, that it is composed with perfect artistic symmetry in the treatment of the different parts, and from the first word to the last is thoroughly harmonious in tone and coloring. Therefore, in ‘Aspasia,’ we are given a book, which could only proceed from the union of an artistic nature and a thoughtful mind—a book that does not depict fiery passions in dramatic conflict, but with dignified composure, leads the conflict therein described to the final catastrophe.”—Allgemeine Zeitung. (Augsburg).

“A new edition of the English translation of that famous old story ‘Elizabeth; or the Exiles of Siberia,’ which used to be the standard French reader in private schools, where many a tender-hearted school-girl cried not only over the hard task of rendering the difficult French phrases into her own tongue, but also over the misfortunes of this generous-souled heroine. There are few French tales so full of deep pure feeling as this, by Mme. Sophie Cottin (born 1773, died 1807), and although it seems almost too well known to create a fresh sensation, it will always be one of the few books that mothers can safely place into the hands of their young daughters, knowing at the time that the perusal of them will not only amuse but waken tender and generous feelings in the young heart, that perhaps needed a story like this to make them spring into life.”—Albany Times.

“It is not only pure, but is, we believe, a trustworthy description of the dignified French life of which it is a picture. ‘Eliane’ is one of the very best novels we have read for one or two seasons past”—The American Literary Churchman, Baltimore.

“‘Eliane’ is interesting not only because it is such a record of the best kind of French life and manners as could only have been written by a person thoroughly at home in the subject, but also because of the delicate drawing of character which it contains.”—London Sat. Review.

“There is a good deal of wisdom in it that is not without its use.”—Popular Science Monthly.

“‘Ranthorpe’ is a reprint of a novel written in 1842, by George Henry Lewes, the well-known husband of George Eliot. It belongs to the psychological class, and is keenly introspective throughout. The style is well adapted to the work, displaying the versatility of a mind whose natural bent was towards metaphysics and the exact sciences.”—Montreal Star.

GEORG EBERS’
ROMANCES & BIOGRAPHIES
COMPRISING:
AN EGYPTIAN PRINCESS,
TWO VOLUMES
THE BRIDE OF THE NILE,
TWO VOLUMES

THE BURGOMASTER’S WIFE,
ONE VOLUME

SERAPIS,
ONE VOLUME

THE EMPEROR,
TWO VOLUMES

UARDA,
TWO VOLUMES

HOMO SUM,
ONE VOLUME

THE SISTERS,
ONE VOLUME

A QUESTION,
ONE VOLUME

A WORD, ONLY A WORD,
ONE VOLUME

LORENZ ALMA-TADEMA,
ONE VOLUME

RICHARD LEPSIUS,
ONE VOLUME