From Illustrated London News: “The Yellow Quarterly”

The Yellow Book. Volume VII. (John Lane.)—A change
has come over the spirit of Mr. Lane’s periodical. Mr.
Aubrey Beardsley is exorcised, and the Newlyn school
reigns in his stead. To find the solid workmanship of
Mr. Stanhope Forbes in the room of Mr. Sickert, the
substantial form of the cottager with a pair of bellows
(“At The Fireside”), every line clearly defined, in lieu of the
hazy, intangible impressionism first worshipped in Mr.
Lane’s quarterly—this is an experience which might
prompt a homily on the mutability of all things. More-
over, the literature of the Yellow Book shows a marked
change. There is nothing in this number that can
distress the most suspicious British matron. It is all
as harmless as those volumes which lie on every well-
regulated drawing-room table. Mr. Crackanthorpe is here
with a perfectly inoffensive study of a travelling show,
very well observed. The showmen occasionally black one
another’s eyes, but there are no more serious irregularities.
Mr. Henry Harland writes a pleasant sketch of royal
emotions (“The Queen’s Pleasure”) in a little Danubian
State with his usual artistic elaboration of rather slight
material. Mr. Harold Frederic, who was never “yellow,”
tells an Irish legend (“The Truce of the Bishop”) with some
force; and Miss Ella D’Arcy carries off the honours of
the number with a little story (“The Web of Maya”)
which has a touch of real power. Miss Lena Milman,
discoursing agreeably of Mr. Henry James, remarks that
English Puritanism seems to be hostile to the short story.
We have not observed that American Puritanism has the
same objection. The common trouble of short stories in
this island is that there is little or nothing in them.
Maupassant, the master of the short story, always has
something to say, and very often it is something tre-
mendous. Miss Ella D’Arcy is not tremendous, but she
has a really impressive idea, which is well handled. Mr.
Le Gallienne‘s “Seventh-Story Heaven” is charmingly
written, but he has already worn the motive just a
little thin. Miss Netta Syrett is probably unaware
that the idea of “A Correspondence” has been
used by Mr. Hardy in “Life’s Little Ironies.” Some-
thing of the old skipping spirit of the Yellow
Book appears in an article on criticism by a writer
who calls himself the “Yellow Dwarf.” He gibes, not
without reason, at the loose and slatternly stuff which
passes for criticism in many of the journals; but he errs in
supposing that he alone cannot tolerate “The Maxman,”
and that he alone is alive to the rmerits of “Gallia.”
He says some just things about Mr. George Moore‘s style,
but they have all been said before by the “pressman” he
despises. The “Yellow Dwarf” has discovered his own
genius too late.