Uncle. By Jean de la Brete. Translated by John Berwick.
(Dean and Son.)—" Mon Oncle et mon Cure" is a pleasing prose idyll, to which Mr. Berwick's translation does substantial justice. There is in the best French fiction a certain sweet simplicity and naivete in the handling of character and situation which have been fully attained by no English writer, with perhaps the solitary exception of Goldsmith ; and Uncle cannot be better briefly described than by saying that it leaves upon the imagination a very similar impression to that which is left by the immortal " Vicar of Wakefield." The childlike cure who super- intends the education of the heroine, and who is one part delighted and three parts terrified at her ingenuity in acquiring contraband knowledge, is a creation not unworthy of comparison with the good Mr. Primrose himself ; and as Mr. Berwick has not adopted the whole of the original title, one wonders why he did not call his translation " My Cure." The unconscious self-revela- tions of Refine herself have a delightful freshness, and though the story, as a story, is slight enough, the book has a winning simplicity and grace that are quite irresistible.
Previous page
