THE STORY OF A PLAIN WOMAN.* My Trivial Life and

Misfortune; a Gossip, with No Plot in Particular. By a Plain Woman. In three vols." This is the announcement which we read upon the title-page of the novel before us, and we proceed through the two first volumes (com- prising 614 pages !) in the constantly confirmed conviction that we have herein read a full, true, and particular description of the work of the "Plain Woman,"—that it is a gossip, and nothing more, and that the woman is certainly a plain, and a very plain, woman indeed. But as we enter upon the third volume, we are compelled to alter our opinion, not as to the plainness of our heroine—certainly not—for that fact is more painfully forced upon us in each succeeding page, but as to the truth of the statement

• My Trivial Lifd a,id Mii.fortune. In S vole. London; William Wmokwood and Sons.

that the story contains "no plot in particular." We cannot admit this plea as to the third volume, though it is abundantly true of the first and second. But to begin with, may we be allowed a few words as to the plainness of our heroine P It would be unreasonable to complain because we are called upon to take an interest in the fortunes, or, as in this case, in the misfortunes of a plain woman—for many a plain woman is interesting, charming, attractive, she may even be elegant, or have beautiful hair, a musical voice, a redeeming smile or laugh. What is more charming in a woman than a sweet voice and melodious laugh ? She may sing, or play, or paint, without interfering with her plainness in the least ; or she may be highly educated, and a culti- vated and interesting companion ; but the Sophy who tells her own story in these pages is not one of all these things. Nature has not endowed her with a single attractive gift; not one external or mental charm are we allowed, to lend a grace to the young lady whose misfortunes we follow closely through 895 pages. She is, according to her own description, "common- looking, with fat cheeks, a double chin, a large and fat nose ;" she is "short and stout, with no one good feature, with hair of no particular colour," and she is, we regret to add, pert—a fact which she does not herself seem to appreciate. She dwells, in a humiliating and abject manner, upon the subject of her per- sonal appearance, and on the constant snubbing andneglect which she receives at the hands of all her friends and acquaintances, and she never gives us an opportunity of forgetting for a moment any of her social disadvantages. All this, we feel, is hard upon the reader, and we resent it warmly ; such extreme uninterest- ingness is unusual in real life, and unnecessary and unpardon- able in fiction. When we come to her mental powers, we find that Sophy cannot learn German ; it is too hard for her. She cannot sing or play, and only once takes a few lessons in painting ; her grammar also is of a doubtful character, and sins in omission, if not in commission ; and many of her expressions are ugly, we might almost say vulgar. She speaks, for instance, of being "deadly sick" of this, that, and the other ; she talks of "botherations " familiarly, instead of annoyances ; we hear of "dowdy frights" or "old dows," "tall dashers," "carriages snailing along," &c. All this is to us very un- pleasant, though it may be considered lively. The tone of the "good society" in which she lives is, we think, questionable, when two ladies, who are neither deaf nor dumb, talk to one another in the deaf and dumb alphabet in the presence of other ladies—strangers—at a ball. Bat we must desist from loading the already too much enduring Sophy with our censure, in addi- tion to the trials which our authoress most unrelentingly piles upon her, from the first page to the last. Indeed, her life seems to be one long misfortune, which begins at her birth; for, brought up by a weak and good-natured mother, to whom, however, she is devoted, and an exacting Evangelical aunt, whom she cannot endure, Sophy acquires a flippant and unpleasing manner of speaking of religious subjects generally, though she is herself an excellent young woman.

In the first volume, Sophy describes for us the small spites, envyings, triumphs and disappointments, slanders and back- bitings of the society in which she and her mother live together, after the marriage of" Aunt Jane" to "an excellent Christian gentleman of sound Evangelical views." All this is told in a very lively and amusing—perhaps we should better express our own opinion by saying smart—style, and to all those who are satisfied with the smallest chitchat of gossip—as to how Miss Tutterton "interpreted classic" music, and was immensely applauded by "her set," to the great disgust of Mrs. Elmer- Elmer ; or of how Miss Ermyntrude Elmer-Elmer took her high notes, and thereby sent Lady Tutterton and her daughter sweeping out of the room in jealous rage at the applause of "her set," and especially of a certain Pasha, Houstapha Kons- tapha Bey ; or of how Denis Rigardy-Wrenstone cut his aunt and cousin, and "walked about with his hat all on one side in search of his shirt cuffs,"—this volume will, no doubt, be very edifying.

In the second volume, we have an account of Sophy's life of intense, dreary, almost maddening monotony with her uncle and aunt, and a friend of her aunt's—the "admirable Catherine Sherbrook- Stewart "—at Sherbrook Hall. The only redeeming feature of this part of the story is that we become, in a quiet way, attached to the honourable, but narrow-minded and one-ideaed Uncle Sherbrook, whose character is the best in the book. We may say here that Sophy is remarkably unfortunate in her circle of acquaintance, for it comprises only six really honest, right-minded people in all, of whom only three are possessed of an average amount of common-sense, and only one of an average amount of will and independence. "Uncle Sherbrook" is a really interesting character, and so is his heir-apparent, his good, but weak-willed cousin, James Sherbrook, the rector of the parish. The tedium of this part of the story is relieved, but unpleasantly so, by a visit of Sophy's to a very fast and abominable set of people of the " quite-too-awfully-awful " type ; and here she meets her future husband, David Scott, who is being harassed by the exaggerated flirtation of the girl with

whom he is in love, the beautiful, but unprincipled, Louisa Clarcke. At the end of the second volume, the "trivial life" of the heroine may be considered over, and "the misfor- tune," par excellence, to befall her. In the first chapter of the third volume, she is married by David Scott for love,

as She fondly supposes, but really for two wholly different reasons,—for the 230,000 which he hears she is to receive by her uncle's will at his death, and because Louisa Clarcke has become engaged to Mr. Fred Tankney, of Tank Court. 'The plot of the third volume is twofold, and consists, in the first place, of the scheming together of the evil genius of the story, "the admirable and Evangelical Catherine," and the soli- citor, Buggle, to defraud the natural heirs of Mr. Sherbrook ; and, in the second place, of the endeavours of Louisa Clarcke and "her set" to estrange David Scott from Sophy.

The authoress of A Plain Woman, as we find ourselves un- consciously styling this novel, is not more relentless to Sophy, and the few other honest, but most unfortunate people of her story, than she is to her readers, in refusing to pander to their hankering after a little poetical justice. She evidently acts on the principle laid, down by Mark Twain in his treatment of " the

good little boy who came to a bad end," and "the bad little boy who prospered," for everybody worth anything comes to grief, and all the company of evil-doers prosper, without apparently ever coming to the knowledge of what villains they are.

The book, however, is far from being without ability. The authoress evidently finds it easier to deal with ex- tremes in character than to paint with moderation ; but she does it with wonderful consistency; and each char- acter, even the most unimportant, remains in the mind clearly defined and never straying off its lines. In

The Plain Woman we have the extremely silent person, the extremely diffuse, the extremely rigid, the extremely EU, the extremely civil and the extremely rude, the ex- tremely insincere flatterer, and the extremely honest and abrupt plain-speaker. Mrs. Rigardy-Wrenstone represents the last extreme, and a capital character she is. In Sophy we have the extremely devoted daughter, nieekand wife ; almost always patient under circumstances of unparalleled provocation, ex- tremely high-principled, and extremely plain. In Uncle Sher- brook we have the most rigidly honourable, kind, just, but narrow-minded man, who excites our respect always, and our pity and affection towards the end of his life. Perhaps his letter

to Sophy is one of the nicest little bits in the book, and most characteristic of the writer. Sophy has been told by her Aunt

Jane that her Uncle Sherbrook refuses to go to law with her nephew Denis, though "Denis has been teasing your uncle about the two oaks in the front avenue." Sophy is alarmed at this intelligence, "for," at she says to her husband, "when a man like Uncle Sherbrook no longer jumps at a law-suit, believe me, there is something radically wrong with his con-

stitution." So she writes, inquiring anxiously after his health, and begging him to consult Dr. Daly. The following is his reply :—

"DEAR SornY,—You may be unaware that the Wrenstone and Sherbrook estates are somewhat curiously intermixed. Your aunt's nephew- holding a part of his kitchen-garden and the piece of land covered by his flower-garden, from me ; while I am forced to rent a small portion of my own lawn and front avenue from him. Your aunt's nephew has lately cut down some of the trees on his land. The two old oaks beside the front avenue were levelled to the ground -early one morning, before there was time to apprise me of the trespass. I have taken the first opinion in London. Sir Wighead Pighead advises legal proceedings, and, moreover, says that I am entitled to heavy damages, the terms of my lease expressly annulling the landlord's right to cut timber until such time as the lease shall expire. Were I a younger man, I might perhaps be tempted to file a bill against your aunt's nephew, but I feel that at my time of life, the worry of such a lawsuit would be but a bad preparation for eternity. I cannot also refrain from reflecting that no lawsuit could make the old oaks grow again in my day. I have not had occasion to consult Dr. Daly, my health being no worse than my age should lead me to expect. When threescore years and ten are past, the earthly

pilgrimage is over. I am glad to hear a good account of you and your husband.—I remain, your affectionate uncle, E. Moms::

SHERBROOS."

To sum up, then, in spite of the ability which the book un- doubtedly contains, we cannot estimate it highly. It is, for the most part, a study of the poor, small and mean side of human nature, the amusement to be derived from which does not, we think, warrant the chronicling of it, especially where every germ of better things in the characters is immediately seized upon and stifled by the authoress, as though she believed in the ultimate triumph of Evilover Good. We should advise her to give up this theory,—if she holds it,—to take better materials, and then, with her talent, she ought to produce a book well worth reading.