Claude Meadowleigh,—Artist. By Captain W. E. Montague. 2 vole. (Hurst
and Blackett.)--Claude Meadowleigh is the most carefully studied and ambitions character in the book, and to judge from its title, the author's favourite, but it is not the most successful. There is some- thing of genuitie nature in the simplicity, kindliness, and unworldliness of the man ; but he is distinctly feeble and sentimental, and rouses a pity which is more akin to contempt than the author would like to have it. Captain Jack Silver is a far happier effort. He, too, is weak, drifting into all sorts of troubles, from which he is rescued by a good-fortune which he cannot be said to deserve ; but his weakness is of a kind which does 'not make us like him less or feel at all inclined to despise. Especially in his love affairs is this cleverly managed. His indecision, between the poor beauty, to whom he has plighted his faith, and the heiress whose fortune would be so convenient for his wants, and whom he half believes to be in love with him, is anything but creditable to him. Still, we are never allowed to think him actually base, and we are quite glad when everything comes right, and the first and true love triumphs. We even refuse to do what the writer clearly wishes,—to mourn over the hard fate of the artist-father, when the daughter, who is everything to him, forgets him in her love for this shallow-natured lover. We are not quite sure that Jack Silver, shallow as he may be, is not worth more than poor, tender-hearted, unselfish Claude. The female 'characters of the tale are very pleasant in their way, Alice, the painter's daughter, being much more than a pretty doll; and Miss Harkhollow, the heiress, an uncommonly skilful portrayal of a very difficult character,—the girl who has masculine tastes, but yet is a genuine woman. Some clever sketches of military life make up a novel which we can without hesitation class as above the average.
Previous page
