Svengali is drawn with inimitable skill, and
with so much realism that the reader feels that he must have been known
and hated by du Maurier in all his repulsiveness. And yet this loathsome
creature has the power of so seizing and expressing the noblest works of
the great masters of harmony as to move his hearers to tears, to sway
them at his will by the tenderness and feeling he puts into the notes.
It is a hard thing for a music-lover to comprehend, that a man of low
and vicious life, and utterly without aspirations, can so express the
penetrating beauty that lies in music more than in any other art. It
shows, too, that music gives us only what it finds in us, and proves the
folly of "program music," or music with a translation.

AUBURN, N. Y.

S. M. COX.

(_Mrs. Emma Carleton, in the Louisville Courier-Journal._)

"A great deal has been said and written about 'Ben Bolt,'" said a woman
who doesn't pretend to be musical, "and the other songs of the Trilby
repertoire; but I have not yet seen or heard any comment on Trilby's
'great and final performance'--the vocalization of Chopin's Impromptu, A
flat. Du Maurier devotes two entire pages to most wonderful description
of this wonderful musical achievement; two exquisite pages of music
painted in words, in most masterly and matchless fashion. Who can forget
the depiction of La Svengali's voice, 'as a light nymph catching the
whirl of a double-skipping rope as she warbles that long, smooth,
lilting, dancing laugh, that wondrous song without words.' This
impromptu should be rechristened the 'Trilby Impromptu,' and musicians
everywhere should now--while the Trilby wave is riding high--be charming
their audiences by playing it."

* * * * *

The Oliver Ditson Co. has published a pamphlet of "Trilby" songs, etc.,
containing the words and music of "Ben Bolt," "Malbrouck," "Bonjour,
Suzon," "Der Nussbaum" ("The Nut-tree") "Cantique de Noel" and "Au Clair
de la Lune," and the music of Chopin's "Impromptu."

* * * * *

On March 1, 1895, a postcard was sent from the office of _Life_, calling
the attention of "exchange editors" throughout the country to "A
'Trilby' Examination." We reprint the card in full:--

"_Life's Monthly Calendar_ offers a series of cash prizes for the best
sets of replies to the following questions on 'Trilby':

1. What does the author claim as the king of all instruments? Who does
he cla