The Standard Oratorios: Their Stories, Their Music, And Their Composers

[337] [338]

THE STANDARD OPERAS. Their Plots, their Music, and their Composers. By George P. Upton, author of "Woman in Music," etc., etc.

12mo, flexible cloth, yellow edges $1.50

The same, extra gilt, gilt edges $2.00

"Mr. Upton has performed a service that can hardly be too highly appreciated, in collecting the plots, music, and the composers of the standard operas, to the number of sixty-four, and bringing them together in one perfectly arranged volume.... His work is one simply invaluable to the general reading public. Technicalities are avoided, the aim being to give to musically uneducated lovers of the opera a clear understanding of the works they hear. It is description, not criticism, and calculated to greatly increase the intelligent enjoyment of music."--Boston Traveller.
"Among the multitude of handbooks which are published every year, and are described by easy-going writers of book-notices as supplying a long-felt want, we know of none which so completely carries out the intention of the writer as 'The Standard Operas,' by Mr. George P. Upton, whose object is to present to his readers a comprehensive sketch of each of the operas contained in the modern repertory.... There are thousands of music-loving people who will be glad to have the kind of knowledge which Mr. Upton has collected for their benefit, and has cast in a clear and compact form."--R. H. Stoddard, in "Evening Mail and Express" (New York).
"The summaries of the plots are so clear, logical, and well written, that one can read them with real pleasure, which cannot be said of the ordinary operatic synopses. But the most important circumstance is that Mr. Upton's book is fully abreast of the times."--The Nation (New York).

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[339]

THE STANDARD CANTATAS. Their Stories, their Music, and their Composers. A Handbook. By George P. Upton. 12mo, 367 pages, yellow edges, price, $1.50; extra gilt, gilt edges, $2.00.

In half calf, gilt top $3.25

In half morocco, gilt edges 3.75

In tree calf, gilt edges 5.50

The "Standard Cantatas" forms the third volume in the uniform series which already includes the now well known "Standard Operas" and the "Standard Oratorios." This latest work deals with a class of musical compositions, midway between the opera and the oratorio, which is growing rapidly in favor both with composers and audiences.
As in the two former works, the subject is treated, so far as possible, in an untechnical manner, so that it may satisfy the needs of musically uneducated music lovers, and add to their enjoyment by a plain statement of the story of the cantata and a popular analysis of its music, with brief pertinent selections from its poetical text.
The book includes a comprehensive essay on the origin of the cantata, and its development from rude beginnings; biographical sketches of the composers; carefully prepared descriptions of the plots and the music; and an appendix containing the names and dates of composition of all the best known cantatas from the earliest times.
This series of works on popular music has steadily grown in favor since the appearance of the first volume on the Operas. When the series is completed, as it will be next year by a volume on the Standard Symphonies, it will be, as the New York 'Nation' has said, indispensable to every musical library.

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[340]

BIOGRAPHIES OF MUSICIANS.

LIFE OF LISZT. With Portrait.

LIFE OF HAYDN. With Portrait.

LIFE OF MOZART. With Portrait.

LIFE OF WAGNER. With Portrait.

LIFE OF BEETHOVEN. With Portrait.

From the German of Dr. Louis Nohl.

In cloth, per volume $ .75

The same, in neat box, per set 3.75

In half calf, per set 12.00

Of the "Life of Liszt," the Herald (Boston) says: "It is written in great simplicity and perfect taste, and is wholly successful in all that it undertakes to portray."
Of the "Life of Haydn," the Gazette (Boston) says: "No fuller history of Haydn's career, the society in which he moved, and of his personal life can be found than is given in this work."
Of the "Life of Mozart," the Standard says: "Mozart supplies a fascinating subject for biographical treatment. He lives in these pages somewhat as the world saw him, from his marvellous boyhood till his untimely death."
Of the "Life of Wagner," the American (Baltimore) says: "It gives in vigorous outlines those events of the life of the tone poet which exercised the greatest influences upon his artistic career.... It is a story of a strange life devoted to lofty aims."
Of the "Life of Beethoven," the National Journal of Education says: "Beethoven was great and noble as a man, and his artistic creations were in harmony with his great nature. The story of his life, outlined in this volume, is of the deepest interest."

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[341]

MUSIC-STUDY IN GERMANY. By Amy Fay. Eighth edition. 12mo, 352 pages. Price, $1.25.

"One of the brightest small books we have seen is Amy Fay's 'Music-Study in Germany.' These letters were written home by a young lady who went to Germany to perfect her piano-playing. They are full of simple, artless, yet sharp and intelligent sayings concerning the ways and tastes of the fatherland.... Her observation is close and accurate, and the sketches of Tausig, Liszt, and other musical celebrities are capitally done."--Christian Advocate (New York).
"It is bright and entertaining, being filled with descriptions, opinions, and facts in regard to the many distinguished musicians and artists of the present day. A little insight into the home life of the German people is presented to the reader, and the atmosphere of art seems to give a brightness and worth to the picture, which imparts pleasure with the interest it creates."--Dwight's Journal of Music.
"The intrinsic value of the work is great; its simplicity, its minute details, its freedom from every kind of affectation, constitute in themselves most admirable qualities. The remarkably intimate and open picture we get of Liszt surpasses any picture of him heretofore afforded. It is a charming picture, strong, simple, gracious, noble, and sincere."--Times (Chicago).
"In delicacy of touch, vivacity and ease of expression, and general charm of style, these letters are models in their way. The pictures which she gives of the various masters under whom she studied have the value that all such representations possess when they are drawn from life and with fidelity."--Graphic (New York).

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[342]

THE SURGEON'S STORIES

By Z. Topelius, Professor of History, University of Finland. Translated from the original Swedish, comprising--

Times of Gustaf Adolf,

Times of Battle and Rest,

Times of Charles XII.,

Times of Frederick I.,

Times of LinnÆus,

Times of Alchemy.

In cloth, per volume, 75 cents.

The same, in box, per set, $4.50.

These stories have been everywhere received with the greatest favor. They cover the most interesting and exciting periods of Swedish and Finnish history. They combine history and romance, and the two are woven together in so skilful and attractive a manner that the reader of one volume is rarely satisfied until he has read all. Of their distinguished author the Saturday Review, London, says, "He enjoys the greatest celebrity among living Swedish writers;" and R. H. Stoddard has styled them "the most important and certainly the most readable series of foreign fiction that has been translated into English for many years." They should stand on the shelves of every library, public and private, beside the works of Sir Walter Scott.
The Graphic, New York, says:
"Topelius is evidently a great romancer,--a great romancer in the manner of Walter Scott. At moments in his writing there is positive inspiration, a truth and vivid reality that are startling."
The Sun, Philadelphia, says:
"We would much prefer teaching a youth Swedish history from the novels of Topelius than from any book of strict historical narrative."
The Standard, Chicago, says:
"The series as a whole deserves a place with the very best fiction of the present time. The scenery is new to most readers; the historical period covered one of transcendent interest; the characters, the incidents, the narrative style in each story are of the sort to carry the reader straight through, from beginning to end, unwearied, and ready, as each volume closes, to open the next in order."

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[343]

FAMILIAR TALKS ON ENGLISH LITERATURE. A Manual embracing the Great Epochs of English Literature, from the English conquest of Britain, 449, to the death of Walter Scott, 1832. By Abby Sage Richardson, Fourth edition, revised. Price $1.50.

The Boston Transcript says:
"The work shows thorough study and excellent judgment, and we can warmly recommend it to schools and private classes for reading as an admirable text-book."
The New York Evening Mail says:
"What the author proposed to do was to convey to her readers a clear idea of the variety, extent, and richness of English literature.... She has done just what she intended to do, and done it well."
The New York Nation says:
"It is refreshing to find a book designed for young readers which seeks to give only what will accomplish the real aim of the study; namely, to excite an interest in English literature, cultivate a taste for what is best in it, and thus lay a foundation on which they can build after reading."
Prof. Moses Coit Tyler says:
"I have had real satisfaction in looking over the book. There are some opinions with which I do not agree; but the main thing about the book is a good thing; namely, its hearty, wholesome love of English literature, and the honest, unpretending, but genial and conversational, manner in which that love is uttered. It is a charming book to read, and it will breed in its readers the appetite to read English literature for themselves."

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[344]

TALES OF ANCIENT GREECE. By the Rev. Sir G. W. Cox, Bart., M.A., Trinity College, Oxford.

12mo, cloth, price, $1.25.

"Written apparently for young readers, it yet possesses a charm of manner which will recommend it to all."--The Examiner, London.
"It is only when we take up such a book as this that we realize how rich in interest is the mythology of Greece."--Inquirer, Philadelphia.
"Admirable in style, and level with a child's comprehension. These versions might well find a place in every family."--The Nation, New York.
"The author invests these stories with a charm of narrative entirely peculiar. The book is a rich one in every way."--Standard, Chicago.
"In Mr. Cox will be found yet another name to be enrolled among those English writers who have vindicated for this country an honorable rank in the investigation of Greek history."--Edinburgh Review.
"It is doubtful if these tales--antedating history in their origin, and yet fresh with all the charms of youth to all who read them for the first time--were ever before presented in so chaste and popular form."--Golden Rule, Boston.
"The grace with which these old tales of the mythology are re-told makes them as enchanting to the young as familiar fairy tales or the 'Arabian Nights.'... We do not know of a Christmas book which promises more lasting pleasures."--Publishers' Weekly.
"Its exterior fits it to adorn the drawing-room table, while its contents are adapted to the entertainment of the most cultivated intelligence.... The book is a scholarly production, and a welcome addition to a department of literature that is thus far quite too scantily furnished."--Tribune, Chicago.

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[345]

SHORT HISTORY OF FRANCE, FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. By Miss E. S. Kirkland, author of "Six Little Cooks," "Dora's House-keeping," &c.

12mo, cloth, price, $1.25.

"A very ably written sketch of French history, from the earliest times to the foundation of the existing Republic."--Cincinnati Gazette.
"The narrative is not dry on a single page, and the little history may be commended as the best of its kind that has yet appeared."--Bulletin, Philadelphia.
"A book both instructive and entertaining. It is not a dry compendium of dates and facts, but a charmingly written history."--Christian Union, New York.
"After a careful examination of its contents, we are able to conscientiously give it our heartiest commendation. We know no elementary history of France that can at all be compared with it."--Living Church.
"A spirited and entertaining sketch of the French people and nation,--one that will seize and hold the attention of all bright boys and girls who have a chance to read it."--Sunday Afternoon, Springfield (Mass.).
"We find its descriptions universally good, that it is admirably simple and direct in style, without waste of words or timidity of opinion. The book represents a great deal of patient labor and conscientious study."--Courant, Hartford (Conn.).
"Miss Kirkland has composed her 'Short History of France' in the way in which a history for young people ought to be written; that is, she has aimed to present a consecutive and agreeable story, from which the reader can not only learn the names of kings and the succession of events, but can also receive a vivid and permanent impression as to the characters, modes of life, and the spirit of different periods."--The Nation, New York.

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[346]

LAUREL-CROWNED TALES.

Abdallah; or, The Four-Leaved Shamrock. By Edouard Laboulaye. Translated by Mary L. Booth.

Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. By Samuel Johnson.

Raphael; or, Pages of the Book of Life at Twenty. From the French of Alphonse de Lamartine.

The Vicar of Wakefield. By Oliver Goldsmith.

The Epicurean. By Thomas Moore.

Picciola. By X. B. Saintine.

An Iceland Fisherman. By Pierre Loti.

Other volumes in preparation.

Handsomely printed from new plates, on fine laid paper, 12mo, cloth, with gilt tops, price per volume, $1.00.
In half calf or half morocco, $2.50.

In planning this series, the publishers have aimed at a form which should combine an unpretentious elegance suited to the fastidious book-lover with an inexpensiveness that must appeal to the most moderate buyer.
It is the intent to admit to the series only such tales as have for years or for generations commended themselves not only to the fastidious and the critical, but also to the great multitude of the refined reading public,--tales, in short, which combine purity and classical beauty of style with perennial popularity.

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[347]

THE BOOK-LOVER. A Guide to the Best Reading. By James Baldwin, Ph.D. Sixth edition, 16mo, cloth, gilt top, 201 pages. Price, $1.00.

In half calf or half morocco, $2.75.

Of this book, on the best in English Literature, which has already been declared of the highest value by the testimony of the best critics in this country, an edition of one thousand copies has just been ordered for London, the home of English Literature,--a compliment of which its scholarly western author may justly be proud.
We know of no work of the kind which gives so much useful information in so small a space.--Evening Telegram, New York.
Sound in theory and in a practical point of view. The courses of reading laid down are made of good books, and in general, of the best.--Independent, New York.
Mr. Baldwin has written in this monograph a delightful eulogium of books and their manifold influence, and has gained therein two classes of readers,--the scholarly class, to which he belongs, and the receptive class, which he has benefited.--Evening Mail and Express, New York.
If a man needs that the love of books be cultivated within him, such a gem of a book as Dr. Baldwin's ought to do the work. Perfect and inviting in all that a book ought outwardly to be, its contents are such as to instruct the mind at the same time that they answer the taste, and the reader who goes carefully through its two hundred pages ought not only to love books in general better than he ever did before, but to love them more wisely, more intelligently, more discriminatingly, and with more profit to his own soul.--Literary World, Boston.

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[348]

WE TWO ALONE IN EUROPE. By Mary L. Ninde. Illustrated from Original Designs.

12mo, 348 pages, price, $1.50.

The foreign travels which gave rise to this volume were of a novel and perhaps unprecedented kind. Two young American girls started for "the grand tour" with the father of one of them, and he being compelled to return home from London they were courageous enough to continue their journeyings alone. They spent two years in travel,--going as far north as the North Cape and south to the Nile, and including in their itinerary St. Petersburg and Moscow. Miss Ninde's narrative is written in a fresh and sprightly but unsensational style, which, with the unusual experiences portrayed, renders the work quite unlike the ordinary books of travel.
It is a narrative told so naturally and so vividly that the two gentle travellers do not seem to be "alone," but to have taken at least the reader along with them.... It is filled with so many interesting glimpses of sights and scenes in many lands as to render it thoroughly entertaining.--The Congregationalist, Boston.
As the work of a bright American girl, the book is sure to command wide attention. The volume is handsomely bound and copiously illustrated with views drawn, if we mistake not, by the author's own fair hands, so well do they accord with the vivacious spirit of her narrative.--Times, Troy, New York.
In these days when letters and books about travels in Europe have become generally monotonous, to say the least, it is absolutely refreshing to get hold of a bright, original book like "We Two alone in Europe."... The book is especially interesting for its fresh, bright observations on manners, customs, and objects of interest as viewed through these young girls' eyes, and the charming spice of adventure running through it.--Home Journal, Boston.

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[349]

THE HUMBLER POETS. A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse. 1870 to 1885. By Slason Thompson. Crown 8vo, 459 pages, cloth, gilt top. Price, $2.00.

In half calf or half morocco, $4.00.

The publishers have done well in issuing this volume in a style of literary and artistic excellence, such as is given to the works of the poets of name and fame, because the contents richly entitle it to such distinction.--Home Journal, Boston.
The high poetic character of these poems, as a whole, is surprising. As a unit, the collection makes an impression which even a genius of the highest order would not be adequate to produce.... Measured by poetic richness, variety, and merit of the selections contained, the collection is a rarely good one flavored with the freshness and aroma of the present time.--Independent, New York.
Mr. Thompson winnowed out the chaff from the heap, and has given us the golden grain in this volume. Many old newspaper favorites will be recognized in this collection,--many of those song-waifs which have been drifting up and down the newspaper world for years, and which nobody owns but everybody loves. We are glad for ourselves that some one has been kind and tender-hearted enough to take in these fugitive children of the Muses and give them a safe and permanent home. The selection has been made with rare taste and discrimination, and the result is a delightful volume.--Observer, New York.

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[350]

LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, By the Hon. Isaac N. Arnold. With Steel Portrait. 8vo, cloth, 471 pages. Price, $1.50.

In half calf or half morocco, $3.50.

It is decidedly the best and most complete Life of Lincoln that has yet appeared.--Contemporary Review, London.
Mr. Arnold succeeded to a singular extent in assuming the broad view and judicious voice of posterity and exhibiting the greatest figure of our time in its true perspective.--The Tribune, New York.
It is the only Life of Lincoln thus far published that is likely to live,--the only one that has any serious pretensions to depict him with adequate veracity, completeness, and dignity.--The Sun, New York.
The author knew Mr. Lincoln long and intimately, and no one was better fitted for the task of preparing his biography. He has written with tenderness and fidelity, with keen discrimination, and with graphic powers of description and analysis.--The Interior, Chicago.
Mr. Arnold's "Life of President Lincoln" is excellent in almost every respect.... The author has painted a graphic and life-like portrait of the remarkable man who was called to decide on the destinies of his country at the crisis of its fate.--The Times, London.
The book is particularly rich in incidents connected with the early career of Mr. Lincoln; and it is without exception the most satisfactory record of his life that has yet been written. Readers will also find that in its entirety it is a work of absorbing and enduring interest that will enchain the attention more effectually than any novel.--Magazine of American History, New York.

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[351]

THE AZTECS. Their History, Manners, and Customs. From the French of Lucien Biart. Authorized translation by J. L. Garner.

Illustrated, 8vo, 340 pages, price, $2.00.

The author has travelled through the country of whose former glories his book is a recital, and his studies and discoveries leaven the book throughout. The volume is absorbingly interesting, and is as attractive in style as it is in material.--Saturday Evening Gazette, Boston.
Nowhere has this subject been more fully and intelligently treated than in this volume, now placed within reach of American readers. The mythology of the Aztecs receives special attention, and all that is known of their lives, their hopes, their fears, and aspirations finds record here.--The Tribune, Chicago.
The man who can rise from the study of Lucien Biart's invaluable work, "The Aztecs," without feelings of amazement and admiration for the history and the government, and for the arts cultivated by these Romans of the New World is not to be envied.--The Advance, Chicago.
The twilight origin of the present race is graphically presented: those strange people whose traces have almost vanished from off the face of the earth again live before us. Their taxes and tributes, their marriage ceremonies, their burial customs, laws, medicines, food, poetry, and dances are described.... The book is a very interesting one, and is brought out with copious illustrations.--The Traveller, Boston.
M. Biart is the most competent authority living on the subject of the Aztecs. He spent many years in Mexico, studied his subject carefully through all means of information, and wrote his book from the view-point of a scientist. His style is very attractive, and it has been very successfully translated. The general reader, as well as all scholars, will be much taken with the work.--Chronicle Telegraph, Pittsburg.

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[352]

I.

II.

III.

IV.

BIOGRAPHIES OF MUSICIANS.

THE SURGEON'S STORIES

LAUREL-CROWNED TALES.

Transcriber's Notes to the Electronic Edition