The Outlaw of Iceland. By Victor Hugo. Translated by Sir
Gilbert Campbell. (Ward and Downey).—Critics, even competent ones, are not often nnanimone ; but had this romance been pub- lished anonymously, we really believe that the voice of the host would have been as the voice of one man. The literary tasters, one and all, would have declared the story to be far-fetched, exaggerated, and amorphous ; improbable and involved, without being exciting ; deficient in all, or almost all, the qualities which go to make a satis- fying work of art. The name of "Victor Hugo on the title-page will, however, convince some of them that somewhere in the work there must be hidden virtues and beauties, and they will forthwith set out in search of them. It would be ungracious not to hope that their quest may be more successful than ours has been ; for we must confess that, having travelled wearily from the Dan of the first chapter to the Beersheba of tho last, we have found the land altogether barren. None of Hugo's strong points are exemplified, and all his weak points are accentuated into a horrible travesty of hie beat work. The central figure, a homi- cidal demon, is happily as unrealisable as he is repulsive, and the involved phantasmagic story in which be plays his part, should be called not a romance but a nightmare. There is a certain gruesome power in some of the chapters, especially in one which gives a sickening account of the mutilation of a corpse, which is lying in a dead-house; but it is the sort of power which resembles not the serviceable activity of health, but the abnormal strength of the fever- patient or the madman. So far as we can judge without having the original before us, we should think that Sir Gilbert Campbell has accomplished well his task of translation. To the question whether the task was worth undertaking, the foregoing sentences will provide an answer.
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