17 JANUARY 1857, Page 17

NEW NOVELS. * GREAT power of delineation is the principal characteristic

of Wildflower bythe author of "The House of Elmore." The things or persons delineated, or the ideas expressed, may vary in their nature or quality : sometimes they may be of common if not every-day life ; or they may deviate little from the usual run of social descriptions in fiction ; or they may aim at novelty of effect by a singularity which is rather unpleasant than original: but be the ideas what they may, they are presented with a distinctness and a force that compel attention, and widely separate the author from the mass of novelists. This power of delineation is supported. by faculties that store up something to delineate. There is a good deal of thought in the book as well as of observation, combined with a speculative power which if not exactly imaginative is a sort of substitute for imagination. Here, for example, is a little bit of description which observation without reflection could not have attained. "The child would not have made a bad-looking Judy ; and had she appeared over the green baize of the raree-show—that green baize which hides so many secrets !—the crowd of gazers would only have laughed, and thought it all capital and very appropriate. She was not a pretty child ; she was, perhaps, not an interesting one. The face was older than it should have been—it was almost the face of a little woman's. It was the oldness of thought, the premature marks of care and penury, which stamped its character ; a face that had evidently looked upon deathbeds and deserted • Wildflower. By the Author of " The House of Elmore." In three volumes. Published by Hurst and Blackett. The Wedding Guests ; or the Happiness of Life : a Novel. By Mary C. Hume, Author of "The Bridesmaid, Count Stephen, and other Poems." Iu two volumes. Published by Parker and Son. Oliver Cromwell: a Story of the aril War. By Charles Edward Stuart. In two volumes. Published by Smith and Elder. The Old Home: a Tale. By Mrs. Mackenzie Daniel, Author of "My Sister Minnie," " Fernley Manor," ite. In three volumes. Published by Newby. Richard Eraleton : a Novel. In three volumes. Published by Newby. homes, and seen much sorrow and the endurance of much privation ,• the face of one who had calculated the chances of a day's meal, when death and distress were cowering within the cottage-walls. It was a pale white little face, not so much an ugly face as an oldfashioned, and partly redeemed from the hitter characteristic by two of the largest black eyes that over were set in the fair head of woman. They were two such great beaming eyes, that they lit up every feature, and softened it; and there was but little shadow of their lustre when she glanced, for an instant, at the dark heaven, from which the white down kept falling, falling."

The story of Wildflower is in two divisions, one introductory, the other containing the novel proper. We prefer the introductory part. In itself it is not much—merely the daily life of an orphan child, whose grandfather is messenger at a Government office, -whither Avice Hera is taken to live on the death of her parents. Such as it is, the narrative is not essentially new : a quaint oldfashioned mansion degraded to business uses—an old. man wrapped up in the notion of his office, small though it may be —a hard-featured, hard-mannered old.woman, with a tender heart when reached—a man of mystery—a wicked son, who frightens and drains his father of money—and a young meditative child, whom these and other things serve as matter for wonder—may be met with in Dickens and probably in other writers. In Wildflower, however, they have a definite purpose, which prevents the appearance of imitation if it cannot impart originality.. The first or introductory section closes with the death of old Hera through the misconduct of his son, and the adoption of Avice by a family of some standing. The second part, after a lapse of time, brings all the principal actors on the scene. Hens, the ruffian of the first part, has succeeded to a large property left by a brother who went to India. He hunts up a son whom hohad abandoned ; gives him such education as is attainable in a brief time ; purchases an estate, and comes out as a country gentleman. The convenience of the novel brings old Hera and his son Arnold into immediate contact with Mr. Stanmore, the adopted father of Avice and his real daughter Rosamond. A considerable part of the story turns upon the ardent but selfish passion of Arnold Hera for Rosamond Stanmore, its success, and the real misery of Rosamond's married life. As a delineation, the whole is very well done. The coarseness, passion, and ill-governed temper of Arnold Horn triumphing over his hothouse education, breaking through his picked-up conventional ideas, and. even his strong good sense, are nicely conceived and. developed. But the leading idea is unnatural and distasteful. We shall have ticketof-leave men next figuring as heroes and, lovers in polite society ; and indeed. Wildflower barely stops short of that climax. The story of this "wild. flower," Avice Horn, runs parallel with that of her adopted sister. There is not so much depth about it, and it is somewhat spun out ; while Avice is rather too perpetu.ally conspicuous as a paragon.

There are various persons with various interests—loves, rejections, marriages—in Miss Hume's novel of The Wed4in9 Guests. The two prominent subjects are not new : a lingering

death by consumption, and. an attachment crossed by an apprehension of hereditaryinsanity. Something of noveltyis gi.ven to the slow decay of Frank Littleton by the lesson of religious resignation it is made the means of inculcating ; and the fears of Bernard Huntley, though they throw a gloom and mystery over his attachment to Helen Montagu, do not finally prevail.

Amiable feelings and a temperate religious earnestness distinguish the composition. There are various characters truly observed, and in their delineation obviously partaking of reality, not the product of speculation without knowledge of life. The chief drawback of the book is that the matter is not equal to its elongation. The conversations are natural, but the topics are often too trivial to sustain the interest of a modern novel-reader. In these times of railway speed, he expects a dialogue to be merely a form of narrative or action, so that when the discourse is over he has got further than a mere introduction to certain dramatis personte or minute display: of personal traits. Or if the story does stand still', he looks for vigour of remark, comment on passing events, or for information of some kind. Even in life with all its interests and concomitants, conversation is apt. to get flat if it is confined to trivial topics or to the mere development of the speaker's peculiarities.

The historical romance of Oliver Cromwell exhibits a greater knowledge of the history than of the manners or social characteristics of the period. In the art of telling a story—of so mingling the fortunes of his dramatis personte with the historical events into which it suits the novelist to project them, that the reader has a distinct view of public affairs while following the adventures of private individuals—the author is still more deficient than in the power of painting manners. The reader alternates from a supposititious sketch of Cromwell as a preacher and family man at home on Sunday, to such an historical event as the battle of Edgehill, scenes of purer romance intervening.

The historical knowledge and historical thought which are really in the work render the commonplace character of the story more remarkable. The father of the heroine is a sort of Liberal,. ill-used by the Court, driven into exile, and leaving his daughter. in charge of a friend, a stanch Royalist. Of course Sir John Willingham has a son—Hubert—who, as an equal matter of course, falls in love with Rachel Frankland ; and difficulties, though not so great as is sometimes the ease, arise from the difference of paternal politics. Then there are Roundheads and Cavaliers after the usual stamp ; and a villain, alternately Cavalier and Roundhead, as success dawns upon each particular cause.

As the history is the best-understood, so are the historical Beetles the most interesting—the most substantial, real, and lifehim, if not better written than the romance. Here is part of one —the removal of Charles from Hurst Castle.

"The King's anxieties were increased by the report which had reached him that it was the intention of the ruling powers to put him quietly out of the way—in other words, to assassinate him ; and when, in the middle of the night, towards the end of December, after the King had retired to rest, the rattle of the chains of the drawbridge fell upon his ear, and the clatter of horses was heard in the court-yard, Churls-, full of alarm, sent Hubert to inquire who had arrived. "Hubert returned with the announceme, t that it was Major Harrison, with a body of horse. He had scarcely had tune to communicate this intelligence, which redoubled the King's fears, inasmuch as Harrison was one of the persons who had been named as threatening his life, when the door Opened, and Harrison himself entered. The figure of Harrison was tall and spare ; his complexion and expression dark and sinister ; and his eyes had the fierce glow of religious enthusiasm, verging on insanity. He stood for an instant, fixing his eyes on the King, and was about to speak but Charles, now that death, so much dreaded in the distance, was, as he believed, upon him, recovered at once his composure and dignity. "He rose not from his seat, but slightly bowing his head, addressed his unwelcome visitor= Well, sir ; from whom and what are your despatches, Major Harrison ?'

"'Sir,' replied the Major, 'I am commissioned by the Parliament to conduct you to Windsor.'

"The King fixed his eyes steadfastly on the Major's : he read there the heat of fanatical animosity, but not the skulking look of the assassin. Harrison looked as he was, a bold soldier and a hot zealot; but there was something chivalrous about his bearing, which repelled the idea of his undertaking the base duty of an assassin. " ' Are those all your orders, Major,' asked the King, or are other acts to follow?'

" 'I am to conduct you to Windsor, sir,' replied Harrison : 'what other acts are to follow it is not my duty to announce.' " ' Surely thou art not to kill me, Harrison?' asked the King, with some agitation. "'Sir,' replied the officer, drawing himself up with hauteur, 'the Lord General is not a murderer, to take men's lives in cold blood and by stealth; but had he been, it is not to me that he would have given such a conunission.'

" ' It is well,' said Charles. I did not think your countenance betokened the willing instrument of such an office. But thy General will take my life : I doubt him.' 'Sir,' replied Harrison, gravely, 'I know not what is the fate reserved for 17ou. This only can I say, that the law is the same for great and small : justice hath no respect of persons. Your Majesty will be pleased to hasten your departure.'

"A slight frown crossed the King's brow at hearing himself thus addressed in the tone and language of command ; but he restrained all other outward signs of displeasure, replying, 'Any place rather than this dungeon. I and my attendant, Captain Willingham, will prepare to accompany you, sir : till then I bid you farewell.' And bowing with a mixture of grace and hauteur, he rose. Harrison, overawed despite himself by the King's manner, withdrew respectfully."

Mrs. Mackenzie Daniel's Old Home exhibits the usual qualities of the writer. There is a minute elegance of style in depicting everyday home scenes and the common feelings of life, but there is too much of effort to endow them with an interest they do not in themselves possess, by dint of intense expression. In The Old Home as in the other novels of this week, there is a very remarkable lack of novelty in the governing incidents. As with Miss Hume, consumption is one of the main elements in the tale. Mrs. Daniel interweaves 'with the whole of her story a strong religious feeling. The old hero, the young hero, the second heroine, and her mother, are all "decidedly pious " ; while the action, so to speak, of the story, is to convert the amiable Lila, the hero's first wife, from a " natural " state before she dies. The religions discourse is very prominent, and slightly technical, though in good taste. As the religion does not mar the interest of the novel, it is probable that 271 e Old Home will be a success among certain readers.

A class of books goes out of fashion, like other things, not because the class of producers cease to exist, but because the state of society does not admit of their production. The old fast coach runs no longer, but the coachman and guard have turned themselves to the nearest vocation. The old Minerva Press novel is no more met with, because general education and better models have influenced even the writers independently of the fact that the writings would no longer find a purchaser. The same want of knowledge of the likelihoods of life, a similar incapacity to paint truly such things as the writer must have had some knowledge of, and a total failure in exciting the interest of the reader, still exist, and will be found in Richard Embleton.