Gabriel Denver. By Oliver Madox-Brown. (Smith and Elder)—Mr. Madox-Brown does
indeed "pile up the agony." Before he reaches his fortieth page he gets his dramatis persona, on board a ship, the said persona being Gabriel, his cousin Deborah, whom he has prordised to marry, and one Laura, with whom he is frantically in love. It is easy to see that mischief is brewing. Gabriel's passion is returned by Laura, and discovered by Deborah, who goes mad with jealousy and rage, and seeks revenge by setting the ship on fire, but not before she has had a very narrow escape of being thrown overboard by her fianct: The scene of the ship on fire is continued through about sixty pages, and changes for what we may call scene the fourth, when the same three are in an open boat, without food or water, two of them trying to catch fish (with the water presumably three miles in depth), with a few feet of pack-thread, hooks made of brooch-pins, and bait of cloth steeped in blood. The reader may find out the rest of the story for himself. It is written with some power, the scene where the corpse seems to rise up in the sinking boat as the water rushes in has a certain weird and ghastly picturesqueness, but it is too consistently horrible to read with satisfac- tion, almost, we might say, to read at all. Mr. Madox-Brown gives us some pretty glimpses of Tasmanian scenery, and we should be glad to meet him again, when he is in a more cheerful mood.
Previous page
