Professor Masson's edition of The Collected Writings of Thomas de
Quinsy (A. and C. Black) has reached its twelfth volume which consists of " Tales and Romances." " Klosterheim ; or, the Masque," which was published in book-form in 1832, is now re- printed in this country for the first time, and, according to the editor, " is certainly the most carefully written as well as the most extensive of all De Quincey's efforts in this kind of prose-fiction." He considers that the author would have included the story in his collected works, had copyright not prevented him from so doing. There may have been a stronger reason ; for the romance is a stilted production, without originality and wholly without De Quincey's charm of style. The plot carries the reader to Germany in the time of the Thirty Years' War, and the romance belongs to a class of fiction long since dead and buried. There is a wonderfully beautiful heroine of doubtful parentage, and a handsome hero, who in a masque performs amazing feats ; there is, of course, a powerful villain, and there are gloomy forests and torture-chambers, and spies concealed behind tapestry, and mysterious voices and subterranean passages, with a good deal more of the machinery beloved by Mrs. Radcliffe. The crowning fault of the story is dullness, and, strange to say, the style is sometimes what the reader might expect in a " penny dreadful."
Here is an example Every heart upon the walls of Klosterheim palpitated with emotion as the two parties neared each other ; many almost feared to draw their breath ; many writhed their persons in the anguish of rueful expectation as they saw the moment approach when the two parties would shock together." Some of the shorter tales, translated or original, which did not appear in De Quincey's own edition of his works, may not be new to the reader, since they were published several months ago in Mr. Hogg's two volumes of De Quincey's "Uncollected Writings."
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