A PARCEL OF NOVELS.* THE main design of Red Cap
and Blue Jacket is evidently to depict the process whereby an ardent admirer and would-be imitator of the French Republic, a conspirator ready to ruin himself for what one of his acquaintances calls "virtues in capital letters—Liberty, Fraternity, and the rest of them," is converted gradually into a loyal British subject, confessing duty to be "the best of the lot" of the aforesaid letters. And this design is executed with great ability and success, and kept steadily in view throughout as the object to which all personages and events become in some way or other subser- vient, even though the reader may not at the time, perhaps, have been always aware of that fact. The individual brought to see the error of his ways is a Scotch schoolmaster, in whose character ruggedness and culture, pedantry and knowledge, simplicity and wisdom, are exhibited in curious juxtaposition. Outlawed for belonging to a treasonable secret society, and getting impressed on board a man-of-war, the advantage of the discipline there established gives him a first inkling of possible benefits to be derived from obedience to law, and thus commences a course of enlightenment which is eventually completed by thrilling personal experiences (includinga narrow escape from the guillotine) of Paris in the Reign of Terror. For though a man of his intellectual calibre might not unreason- ably have been expected to be prepared for revolutionary excesses, this proves not to be the case ; and his Republican enthusiasm is not a sufficiently hardy plant to survive the shock caused to his philanthropic and humanitarian senti- ments by the spectacle of Republican injustice, cruelty, and orgies of brute ferocity. As the author does not appear alto- gether devoid of sympathy for Republican ideas, we are some. what surprised at the unrelieved blackness with which he paints those who put them into practice ; and people will perhaps question the fairness of representing a revolution as a menagerie let loose, and a state of things wherein "power gravitates downwards to the lowest level,—to those who have inherited nothing, have acquired nothing, respect nothing ; " would that description apply, for instance, to men of Hamp- den's stamp ? But any little irritation caused on this score to readers of different political opinions, will not hinder their appreciation of the book's cleverness, vigour, and originality. If considered as a truthful picture of people's state of educa- tion a century ago, however, the tendency to classical puns and erudition displayed by the personages of various classes and sexes may well provoke a sigh from burdened ratepayers as they reflect upon the melancholy change for the worse that must have taken place since then in order to produce the modern demand for School Boards and free schooling.
We believe that there exists in what is called smart society a set of individuals banded together under the name of "Souls," and it is rumoured that an indispensable preliminary to enrolment in this select body is, for the neophyte to be able to hold forth learnedly upon love and death. If this be true, we venture to think that the writer of Henry Standon, if not already belonging to the aforesaid assemblage, would be a very eligible candidate for admission, inasmuch as he • (1.) Rod Cop and Blue Jacket. By G. Dann. London : Blackwood and Pons.— (2.) Henn Stan don. By D'Arcy Drew. London : Simpkin, HarshaD, Hamilton, Kent, and Co.. —(3.) A Woman's Whim. By Mra. Diehl. London : Hutchinson and 0o.—(4.) The Coo.fesaions of a Currency Girl. By W. Carlton Haws. London Ward and Downey.—(5,) The Fool .11 Destiny. By Colin lifiddlotcn. London : Hurst and Illackett. appears to be both able and willing to take an intelligent part in discussions on these and most other subjects in earth or heaven at a moment's notice, and is, furthermore, sufficiently untrammelled by ordinary conventional views to moralise in the following strain respecting an unprovoked assassination for purposes of robbery :— " This man was a miserable murderer and no more, without a redeeming feature in the motive or manner of his crime. But was his act really a calamity for Belton ? At the time of his death his will was turned away from the sin he had meditated, but with a man so unstable, and with such tendencies, the future, though an insoluble problem, was full of peril from temptations yet undreamed of. It may be the assassin was his benefactor, rather than his foe, could we foresee his future circumstances, and all the possibilities of a career so devious."
But however successful Mr. D'Arcy Drew may be amongst "Souls," we fear he stands considerably less chance of obtaining the suffragea of novel-readers ; for as his liberal display of general information fails to invest his characters with enough human interest to make one care what becomes of them, and as his pages are crowded with superfluous people and details of all sorts having not the slightest bearing on the story, his book is so tedious that to persevere to the end of it is a matter of no little difficulty.
A Duke's daughter so firmly imbued with the conviction of having a mission to teach the class to which she belongs the iniquity of being mere idlers "wallowing in luxury" instead of workers, that she insists on relinquishing home, rank, and fortune, in order to exemplify her precepts by earning her living on the stage, is a sufficiently unusual phenomenon to excite a hope of great things from the heroine of A Woman's Whim, at the outset ; and as she is endowed not only with the force of character requisite to give practical effect to her conviction, but also with natural talents enabling her to create a furore as a prima donna after a few months' study, she is altogether a rara avis who ought evidently to develop into something decidedly interesting and superior to the common run of mortals. It is therefore disappointing that after a three-volume acquaintanceship with her, the predominant impression left is of having been in company with a girl of quite an ordinary kind, whose extremely uncertain temper, tinge of vulgarity, and utter want of consideration for other people (including even the mother to whom she is supposed to be devoted), effectually prevent her from being regarded as desirable in any but a singing capacity, and dispose us to re- verse the opinion expressed by her ducal uncle to the effect that it is not her, but her ideas, of which be dis- approves. In the scenes where she is represented with her first lover, an Earl's son, one occasionally wonders whether he and she are really what they are supposed to be, or merely 'Arry and 'Arriet, masquerading as scions of the peerage ; and she was so evidently intended by nature for the career of La Orvieta, the professional singer, that the tragic death of her second lover, the tenor Alfieri, is regretted chiefly because of its result in causing her to abandon what is felt to be her true vocation in favour of the less suitable part of a Mar- chioness in her own right with large estates to look after. Her singing master Lora—false, malignant, and unscru- pulous—is also a source of disappointment; for the dark hints dropped at intervals leading one to anticipate some highly sensational piece of mischief from him, come to hardly any- thing after all. Altogether, the book's level of merit is about the same as that of the author's Garden of Eden, which it fell to our lot to review in this journal some twelve years ago ; and we must now repeat what we said then, that her per- sonages are deficient in likeness to life, and that her work' wants more incident and less description of emotion.
"What does the word 'currency' mean ?" will probably be the first thought of a good many people, as it was ours, on taking up The Confessions of a Currency Girl. An investiga- tion of the contents shows that the adjective in question applies in Austral;a to all who have ever been convicts and to their families also, and it assists us to realise the terrible opprobrium thereby conveyed when we read that, in a vision of Heaven comforting the deathbed of a boy thus stigmatised, the culminating bliss is to hear a voice proclaiming, "We have- no currency people here." The heroine is a young lady whose career is hampered by being born to this taint. Shrewd in some ways, while rather unexpectedly " green " in others, fresh, spirited, and honest, having a considerable leaven of vanity and (shall we say?) pertness in her composition, but no real harm and a good deal of human nature, her frank self- revelations are racy and amusing enough to be followed with interest to the last, when, after many vicissitudes and ex- periences with divers kinds of lovers, her somewhat fickle affections are secured at length by a worthy young man who has been faithful to her through all, and she setttles down happily as his wife. In the slight and pathetic sketch of her crippled brother there are touches to make one credit the author with power of a sort not put forth in other parts of the book. And though its grammar is not always above criticism, that blemish may possibly be intentional, as in keeping with the character of the person by whom the auto- biography is supposed to be written.
"Unstable as water thou shalt not excel" is a text singu- larly applicable to the hero of A Pool of Destiny, whose weak- ness in this way provokes at times a feeling very near akin to contempt for an otherwise estimable young gentleman represented as able to do anything he chooses, yet doing nothing; and though capable of succeeding at whatever he attempts, yet frittering away his life for want of fixity of purpose. The novel is superior to a large proportion of those that annually deluge circulating libraries, and one that we advise subscribers to put on their list. But in spite of the author's cleverness, he fails to make good his case against Lord Ilollingdean as the person to blame for Arthur's defect; and so sure do we feel that the cause lay in the latter's own self, and not in his circumstances, and that a knowledge of his father's existence would not have materially affected his conduct, that we think "The Destiny of a Fool" would be a title more appropriate to the contents than the present one. The dire consequences produced by the Duchess of Strathyre's false statement of her son's engagement is an episode in which there is grimness,—especially in the striking, concisely told retribution overtaking the unfortunate girl who becomes a would-be murderess through despair ; and we think Mary and Lord James are a pair of lovers quite as likely to elicit people's sympathy, as the leading lady and gentleman who are the legitimate objects of that sentiment.
Previous page
