ritime
life. Mr. Clark Russell, who knows his ship from masthead to keel as
thoroughly as Jonas Lie, and writes fully as clever a story, seems to me
to have a lower aim, in so far as the novel of adventure, _caeteris
paribus_, belongs on a lower level than the novel of character.

In the year 1874 the Norwegian Storthing conferred upon Jonas Lie an
annual "poet's salary" of about six hundred dollars. This is supposed to
supply a warranty deed to a lot on Parnassus. It removes any possible
flaw in the title to immortality. Lie was now lifted into the
illustrious triumvirate in which Bjoernson and Ibsen were his
predecessors. Great expectations were entertained of his literary
future. But, oddly enough, this official recognition did not have a
favorable effect upon Lie. He felt himself almost oppressed by a sense
of obligation to yield full returns for what he consumed of the public
revenues. In 1875 he published a versified tale, "Faustina Strozzi,"
dealing with the struggle for Italian liberty. In spite of many
excellences it fell rather flat, and was roughly handled by the critics.
Even a worse fate befell its successor, "Thomas Ross" (1878), a novel of
contemporary life in the Norwegian capital. It is a pale, and rather
labored story, in which a young girl, of the Rosamond Vincy type, is
held up to scorn, and the atrocity of flirtation is demonstrated by the
most tragic consequences. There is likewise an air of triviality about
"Adam Schrader" (1879); and Lie became seriously alarmed about himself
when he had to register a third failure. Like its predecessor, this book
is full of keen observations, and the sketches of the social futilities
and the typical characters at a summer watering-place are surely good
enough to pass muster. But, somehow, the material fails to combine into
a sufficiently coherent and impressive picture; and the total effect
remains rather feeble. In a drama, "Grabow's Cat" (1880), he suffered
shipwreck once more, though he saved something from the waves. The play
was performed in Christiania and Stockholm, and aroused interest, but
not enough to keep it afloat.

It has been said of Browning that he succeeded by a series of failures,
which meant, in his case, that his books failed to command instant
attention, but were gradually discovered by the thoughtful few who by
their appreciation spread the poet's fame among the thoughtless many. It
was not in this way that Jonas Lie's failures conduced t