11 OCTOBER 1856, Page 17

NEW NOVELS. *

As we intimated last week in recording its arrival, there are thought and observation in Dr. Owgan's Out on the World. The thoughts, indeed, are not always as well-weighed as they might be, or they suffer from the rhetorical manner in which they are ex- presied. The observations indicate a knowledge of the more ac- cessible strata of semi-fashionable and middle-class society, with such a view of the "upper ten thousand" as may be gained from certain vantage-grounds,—for instance, the reporters' or strangers' gallery. But the observations seem those of a disen- gaged looker-on, rather than the results of an actual experience, and are wanting in that modifying influence which arises from having to do the things you criticize. Still, the thoughts and obser- vations are of a fresh and racy kind, and very different from the generality of novels. There is also a good deal of matter well adapted for use in the kind of work Dr. Owgan appears to have aimed at : but it is not presented in the best form, either through want of practice or of natural aptitude for fiction. Properly speaking, Out on the World has no story. The book consists of a succession of acts, or stages of life, each of which is so far unconnected with the others that it might without much difficulty be taken away. The end is so little influenced by what precedes it that the same denouement might be produced if the whole of the intermediate parts were taken away ; indeed the true novel- reader will expect another termination than that which actually takes place.

This want of a story may arise from the circumstance that the author did not care to write one. His object seems to have been to exhibit the life of a literary, adventurer struggling to maintain himself at Dublin University by means of teaching and writing ; then as tutor in an old Irislk, family, proud, lavish, and em-

• Out on the Worth. By Henry Oregon, LL.D. In three volumes. Published by Hurst and Slackett. Tender and True : a Colonial Tale. By the Author of " Clara )(orison." In two volumes. Published by Smith and Elder.

barrassed ; subsequently to show him as editor, politician, aid. M.P. ; which last position procures him a Colonial Governorship, and in which incident may lurk some satire against the Irish Members. In this career there is not room for the love and mys- tery that tell in a romance, or for social pictures in which the adventurous struggler Richard Neville might prominently _figure. He is therefore left a fortune, which raises him in the world ; but,

after enjoying this for a while, he loses it, finally to recover it. These alteniations of good and ill luck are connected with mysteries. of birth and relationships, which puzzle and encumber rather than improve the story. A love romance and another mystery are as- sociated with Malvina Goodwin, for a long time the hero's lave. It is, however, much more of a mystery to the jealous lover in the book than to the reader ; the last divines it on the instant.

The parts of Out on the World which are at once the truest and most dramatic relate to the scenes at the O'Brien, when Neville, having risen in the world, pays a visit to the family where he drudged as a tutor. The life at Clifton and its vicinity, especially in reference to the foreign adventurer Count de la Roche, (who, by the by, appears again after his death, a la John Sadleir,) more resembles the time when Bath was in its zenith, and a field for fortune-hunters, than these prosaic days. A good part of the book has little that rises to incident, and much of it is carried on in conversations between Neville and a philosophical friend, when. they " expatiate free o'er all this field of man.' Various topics are discussed with facility and point, but perhaps with something of bitterness and conventional ideas. Take this little bit on charla- tanism.

" The charlatan, after all, is a genius in his way, and has a merit of his own : the man who boldly and successfully. practises on and turns to account the insatiable gullibility of that multifarious dupe the public shows that he possesses, not very great talents, because great talents are not necessary to worldly success, and a man of real genius would be too refined and sensi- tive or too proud attempt it ; but a correct appreciation of the value of human nature, and that he despises it accordingly. " It is possible, to be sure, that- a few philosophers may see through the humbug and sneer at it ; but their voices are always lost in the crowd. It is also possible that in the long run the verdict of the philosophers may be recognized by the mass. But what does the charlatan care for that ? he has made-his fortune in the mean time : his children have become aristocrats, and elm afford in their turn to patronize the imitators of their father. Yes, you are right, quackery is respectable, because it is always rich,. and can look dOwn with cold and lofty. scorn upon your starving high principle, your honour in rags, your shivering independence, and your beggarly genius. Come along now, and I'll show you a real genius, if he's alive.'

Thesubject of aristocratic exclusiveness has been heard so muck:Pf lately that it is an obvious topic for a writer dealing with political and Parliamentary life. Hire is how Mr. Neville was rewarded for his services.

" In the progress of the long game, a change of Ministry took place ; and for some days my suspense was feverish : but the men whom I had imp-. portecl night after night—whom I had contributed, as much as a private in- dirifittal could contribute, to place in office—formed their adnunistraticin without offering me effin the most subordinate appoMtiient. Ify indigna- tion was silent, but vigilant. I knew more, and had looked more behind the scenes, than they suspected ; but as I had been upon principle sup- porting their views, I could not, and would not, openly desert them. I made them feel my resentment, however : I waited for my op rtunity, and, by proposing a simple and apparently very harmless amen ent, brought them back to their former seats on the left of the chair.

"It may be supposed that it was a night of sweet triumph to me; for they knew that it was I who did it, and they knew the reason why.

" It was a night of triumph, of grim and morbid satisfaction; but it pre- mised nothing more. I had set my foot upon the highest step to which I could ever ascend. I had no connexions I had not the rank that could entitle mete an admission into the boudoirs of the great female diplomatists, by whom administrations are made and unmade. I was 0 snubbed' on the one side, as an obtrusive plebeian, and suspected on the other as an aristo- crat. And this, indeed, was to be naturally expected; foi I had withdrawn myself alike from the recklessness and vulgarity of democracy and from the repulsive coldness of aristocracy. "I had, in fact, no party. I perceived, also, that however the two grat parties might plot against and supplant each other, they would still keep unbroken the great cordon that excluded all but the members of the oligarchy from the high places of power. I found that I could never be anything more than a formidable critic of Parliametary measures, a proposer of thorny questions and inconvenient amendments ; and I began to reflect, in my loneliness and desolation., whether I could not turn again to seek m private life that domestic happ.mess, one hour of which—provided that the conscience be at rest—exceeds in pure and real enjoyment all that the voice of fame and the hand of power can bestow."

The author of Tender and True, " a Colonial Tale," is rather favourably known by " Clara Morison," a story exhibitive of Colonial manners and society in South Australia; and the diffi- culties with which an " unprotected female," especially if young and attractive, may have to struggle with in the Colonies. The circumstances that carried out Clara were not very likely, but once in Adelaide everything was real and truthful ; the defeat was in the want of breadth and imagination. The facts and the writer's mode of tailing them made the narrative read like the transcript of a true story. This mere truth had something about it of that " weakness, minuteness, or imperfection," which Sir Joshua Reynolds says will always be detected in natural forms however beautiful they may be.

The subject of the present tale is broader in itself, hat it is net treated with greater breadth. The greater part of the book re- lates to South Australia or to the gold-diggings; but Colonial life, though prominent, is not the main object of the writer. That is to depict the troubles and indeed miseries of married life, arising from misconceptions and want of confidence, or rather want of sympathy ; the husband not appreciating the qualities of his wife, the wife mistrusting her husband's love on account of his " reserve." The subject is rather a favourite one with female writers ; but we doubt the general truth of its representation. The intimacy is necessarily so great in married life that the respective charac- ters of husband and wife must be pretty well known to each other. A woman may not exhibit any latent genius, simply because she cannot—it is undeveloped ; but she will in some way exhibit such qualifications as she has, especially when they tell upon domestic comfort. A man may be undemonstrative, but if he has affection he will show it.

In doubting the truth of the representation, however, we do not doubt the reality of the troubles. They are only too real ; but they originate not in misconception but disposition. The diameters of fiction are bad or at least unammbleons ; Tr

there are faults on both sides. Here in Tender and True, the lover, Robert North, is described as solid in principles, solid in religion, solid in his reading, and somewhat solid in person. Mary Lancaster, who is above him in birth, breeding, and posi- tion, prefers him to a flashy unprincipled amateur of art and sprig of fashion ; and, after some opposition from her family, Ro- bert and Mary are married. Then Mr. North, instead of real solidity, much less of " tender and true," shows himself meanly jealous of his wife's family, quite indifferent to her feelings, close, exacting, selfish, and in short a petty tyrant, with an un- derbred style of manner and feeling, quite fit to play " Sullen" without studying the part. This is a piece of him. " It was very natural that Mrs. North should visit her mother frequently, and it was natural, too, that her husband should not like it. Why could she not consult her own judgment about any purchase she had to make, particularly as she had done so much as she pleased before marriage ? He did not see the use of Mary going to mamma's three or four times a week, with or without an excuse. And Mrs. Lancaster said he ought to give a dinner-party and an evening-party too : he disliked such things, and knew best how to manage his own affairs. The penalty of marrying, according to our best authorities, is—a mother-in-law ; and North felt the existence of Mra. Lancaster a drawback to his happiness. And yet she had many vir- tues, if he had looked for them : she was kind, and good-humoured, and sincere her manners were exceedingly agreeable ; and, if he had taken the least pains to please her, she would have soon become strongly attached to her dear girl's husband. But he would not try to win her favour, and her very virtues were a weariness to him. Distant civility was the most be could bring himself to ; and Mrs. Lancaster was both annoyed and grieved. She had always been afraid that the marriage would not be a happy one for her dear Mary, and began occasionally to cross-question Mary gently ; but Mary never complained of anything.'

Such a man as this can inspire no sympathy in the reader's mind, and the necessities of the writer's plan compel a portraiture of Mary not so hard and repulsive but somewhat unreasonable and given to the " vapours." The further necessity of getting the Norths to South Australia renders it necessary to make NorthA bungler in business and cruel in domestic affairs. He gets in- . volved in a speculation, and determines to emigrate, against the tears and wishes of his wife, although he afterwards admits he -could have struggled through : indeed, he is (as he shows himself) ,one of those hard-fisted unscrupulous fellows who would get on in „any place. After some years in Adelaide, matters improve a little, -.at the expense of all the poetry and finer feelings of life ; but it is only after the used device of a will and a letter to be delivered after death that Robert North finally becomes "tender and 'true."

Surely all this is erroneous in principle and false in fact. No man is a hero to his own household, because the opportunity of exhibiting heroic qualities requires a larger field for their exer- cise. No man is set down for a brute or a tyrant at home unless he really is one. The kernel is felt through the shell. " His bark is worse than his bite" describes a better class of men than North is intended to be shown ; for Ms bite and bark are bad alike.

If there were nothing in the book but the development of Mr. Sullen, the tale would be repelling. There are scenes descriptive of manners in Adelaide, and a love-story of Rose Lancaster, who comes out with her family, which relieve the unpleasant dreari- ness of North; though with the life of the colonists is intermixed a little of colonists' coarseness,—their pleasures, like their morals, are but low. The best parts are the early scenes in Woodleigh, when North is " cutting out " Clinton.