New Books

The following estimates of books much in the public eye were made after careful consideration of the trend of critical opinion :

THE DIVINE LADY -- E. Barrington --Dodd, Mead ($2.50). In this spirited semi-history of Lady Hamilton, truth is mixed with fiction in pleasing guise.

Its author has recreated with absorbing skill the atmosphere in which she lived, an amazing, colorful figure whose beauty raised her from the most ignoble depths to be the model and inspiration of the immortal Romney's genius who called her his "Divine Lady," to be the Lady of the Embassy at the British Legation in Naples and dazzling centre of its brilliance, to be the intimate of the intriguing and lovely Neapolitan Queen, Marie Caroline, sister to Marie Antoinette of tragic memory, and lastly to be the passion and inspiration of Nelson, hero of Trafalgar. Illiterate, geistlos, breathtakingly beautiful, object of adoration and of scorn, Emma Hamilton's star flashed through triumphant, troublous skies, and two centuries have not quenched its sullied splendor.

She is the type incomparable for such a tale, and an incomparable tale has the author made of it -- a vivid page torn out of History and endowed anew with life.

UNDER DISPUTE -- Agnes Repplier --Houghton Mifflin ($2.00). If this title sounds acrimonious, one glance at its author's name will allay suspicion. Miss Repplier could not be disputatious if she would. Her essays are among the most polished, civilized, smooth-flowing products of contemporary pens. Her erudition is always so glossed over with silken-smooth phrasing that one does not at once compass its depth. In addition, she has a quick little poniard of deft humor, a keen sense of values.

She never stresses her points -- but she makes them, neatly, incisively, roundly complete. The subject-matter of the present group of essays ranges from The Masterful Puritan and The Divineness of Discontent, to The American Laughs (a charming discussion of kinds of humor), and The Idolatrous Dog -- all disputatious subjects, but ones in which Miss Repplier lines up the hosts, sets the stage for battle, then gracefully withdraws.