Fishers of the Sea. By J. E. Patterson. (John Murray.
6s.)— The fishing population of our coasts must be the largest tribe of those who " occupy their business in great waters." Here it finds a vates sacer. The power of description and the insight into character which we observe in Mr. Patterson are of high excellence. But we must frankly say that they might have been more happily -employed. We must not condemn all novels that "end badly." Some of the acknowledged masterpieces of fiction come into this class,—" The Bride of Lammermoor" and " The Mill on the Floss" among them. But to know the doom from the beginning and to see it working out is not what we expect in fiction. It has too much of the tragedy about it. We look for it when the Houses of Argos or of Thebes are concerned, but we do not want it in a North Country fishing-town. If Mr. Patterson will strike his typewriter, so to speak, leviore plectro, he should. do very well.
Previous page
