“Another life of the great actress Rachel has been written. It forms part of the ‘Famous Women Series,’ which that firm is now bringing out, and which already includes eleven volumes. Mrs. Kennard deals with her subject much more amiably than one or two of the other biographers have done. She has none of those vindictive feelings which are so obvious in Madame B.’s narrative of the great tragedienne. On the contrary, she wants to be fair, and she probably is as fair as the materials which came into her possession enabled her to be. The endeavor has been made to show us Rachel as she really was, by relying to a great extent upon her letters.… A good many stories that we are familiar with are repeated, and some are contradicted. From first to last, however, the sympathy of the author is ardent, whether she recounts the misery of Rachel’s childhood, or the splendid altitude to which she climbed when her name echoed through the world and the great ones of the earth vied in doing her homage. On this account Mrs. Kennard’s book is a welcome addition to the pre-existing biographies of one of the greatest actresses the world ever saw.”—_N.Y. Evening Telegram._ _Sold everywhere. Mailed postpaid, by the Publishers_, ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON. * * * * * _Messrs. Roberts Brothers’ Publications._ FAMOUS WOMEN SERIES. THE COUNTESS OF ALBANY. BY VERNON LEE. One volume. 16mo. Cloth. Price $1.00. “It is no disparagement to the many excellent previous sketches to say that ‘The Countess of Albany,’ by Vernon Lee, is decidedly the cleverest of the series of biographies of ‘Famous Women,’ published in this country by Roberts Brothers, Boston. In the present instance there is a freer subject, a little farther removed from contemporary events, and sufficiently out of the way of prejudice to admit of a lucid handling. Moreover, there is a trained hand at the work, and a mind not only familiar with and in sympathy with the character under discussion, but also at home with the ruling forces of the eighteenth century, which were the forces that made the Countess of Albany what she was. The biography is really dual, tracing the life of Alfieri, for twenty-five years the heart and soul companion of the Countess, quite as carefully as it traces that of the fixed subject of the sketch.”—_Philadelphia Times._ “To be unable altogether to acquiesce in Vernon Lee’s portrait of Louise of Stolberg does not militate against our sense of the excellence of her work. Her pictures of eighteenth-century Italy are definite and brilliant. They are instinct with a quality that is akin to magic.”—_London Academy._