Letters from Sir Charles Grandison. Selected, with a Biographi- cal
Introduction, and Connecting Notes, by George Saintsbury. With Illustrations by Chris Hammond. 2 vols. (George Allen.) —Richardson, the most prolix novelist in the language, is, of all writers, the one most likely to suffer from abridgment. His genius compels him to be minute to a degree which may seem to the modern reader intolerable. The wonderful power which he displays is, however, dependent on the touches which will be overlooked in a hasty perusal, and to understand Richardson's place in fiction, it is necessary to surrender ourselves wholly to his guidance. Many years ago Mr. E. S. Dallas brought out an abridgment of " Clarissa " in three volumes, and though by this compression he was enabled to tell the story in outline, the pecu- liar flavour of the book was lost. It may be doubted whether from the literary standpoint Mr. Saintsbury will be much more successful with Sir Charles Grandison, but his method seems to us a better one than that adopted by Mr. Dallas, and the novel, which is very inferior in quality to its predecessor, suffers perhaps less from abridgment. Readers familiar with Richardson—and there are some left still who care to peruse the seven volumes of Sir Charles Grandison without skipping—may regret the neces- sity that has led Mr. Saintsbury to exhibit that amazing prig and his "flower-garden of ladies," on a miniature scale. No one, he says, can be more sensible than he is "of the drawbacks which wait upon abridgments," but he considers that in this case, as in many, there comes a time when, if a voluminous work that does not rank with the greatest be not prescribed in a shortened form, it will cease to be known among readers. Mr. Saintsbury is probably right, and we may add that Mr. Hammond's numerous and attrac- tive illustrations, and the charming form in which these little volumes appear, ought at least to secure for Sir Charles Grandisom a popular winter Beason.
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