Her Plighted Troth. By Mrs. Fraser. 3 vols. (Hurst and
Blaokett.) —Had we in this instance followed the adviee recently given to novel- reviewers, and read the last volume first, we should perchance have formed a more favourable opinion than we can do after having pursued the more obvious course, and waded or ploughed through the almost interminable twaddle of the first two. These are mainly taken up with the squabbles, rivalries, recriminations, and intrigues of the several members of the noble family of Ellerton. The author's strong point seems to be an idolatry of the innate, and so to speak, necessary, virtues of the aristocracy, or as she would prefer to say, "sangre azul." When she has said of any one that he or she is thoroughbred, high-bred, under- bred, or low-bred—" there was a je ne sais guoi of the thoroughbred style "—and described his nose, she has done all in her power to present the person to us. All the incidents, and they are many, and sufficiently startling to float all the three, occur in the last volume. The characters, we can hardly call them personages, of the tale fail to interest us. With the possible exception of Millicent Dashwood, the bad wicked woman of the story, they are mere shadows, and for the most part extremely disagreeable ones. May we ask Mrs. Fraser for chapter and verse of the strange text she quotes from "the mighty Book of Books," —" The wicked shall flourish like the bay-tree?"
Previous page
