WOMAN'S LOVE
Is a woman's novel—and the novel of a very superior woman too. We will say in what respect this work is womanish. First, it turns entirely upon the affections of the heart: every thing is seen through a medium of refined sentiment; and when the imagination is called into play, it is to gild some romantic incident, some devi- ation from the calculations of interest and prudence, with a ray of beauty,—that is to say, with colours of delusion. Again, the web of the story is composed with a perfect disregard of all the ordi- nary rules on which society is conducted : there is a true woman's. preference of the ideal over the real : and, partly arising from being kept free from the world's contact, and living in an inner circle of her own, the authoress, like other women, manages events and fashions character with a perfect disregard of actual life. Her heroes and heroines are drawn with spirit, fancy, fire ; and are delightful beings to contemplate; but they never existed, nor ever will exist. Let it not, however, be thought that this is a vulgar Leadenhall Street novel : on the contrary, it comes far nearer to the style, manner, and power of Madame DE GENLis—the writer of beautiful sentiment, par excellence. In her romance, as in Mrs. GRIMSTONE'S, the hero is a model of chivalrous purity ; and if he is prevailed against, it is by a conspiracy : the world is divided into angels and their sable reverse: the source of bliss and wo is passion, according as it is well or ill directed : love is religion—through its medium all nature is clothed in beauty and brightness—before its influence, rank, wealth, and law, fade into insignificance.
Woman's Love is a romantic tale, pleasant for young ladies to read ; but our partiality to it arises from its deep knowledge of all the mysteries of the heart. The authoress is most learned in the whole doctrine of emotion, more particularly female emotion; there are in these volumes passages of analytical exami nation into the heart and its agitations, worthy of our best and most elegant writers. This is not a time to indulge in- extracts ; neither are the extracts we should make perhaps cal- culated to attract attention in a newspaper; but we invite the students of lady-human-nature to the careful perusal of these volumes. Though the ladies of the book are painted perhaps somewhat too much en beau, there are several among them we- especially admire ; and beg permission to point out the Lady Claudia as a most successful effort on the part of the authoress.
Woman's Love is calculated to command a very extensive cir- culation among novel-readers- it will satisfy the yearning hearts of the young creatures just entering into life, and who have more love about them than they know what to do with; and thus serve the purpose of a useful sentimental safety-valve.
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