Valentine: a Sketch. By E. C. Price. (Chatto and Windus.)—
This is a remarkable story, with one great defect, which prevents it from taking the high place among recent works of fiction to which it would otherwise be entitled. This defect is the repetition of the device by which the hero of the story, a very attractive person, in spite of his fatal indecision, twice over loses his chance of marrying Valentina. The strain on probability is too great, especially as the characters and the other incidents are all kept within the bounds of good sense, good taste, and moderation, with truly artistic skill. There is a great deal of merit of a rare and delightful kind in the story, the nn. fortunate heroine is a charming creature, her gentle waywardness, her sweet impulsiveness, her faultless refinement, combining with her bright originality, to make her fascinating to the reader almost to the point of pain, for one shrinks from contemplating Valentina in the ruthless hands of her tormentor. From the first, we know the end must be tragic ; such a girl as the author puts before us with really vital and vivid force is not of the "staying" kind, in the race of life. There is no silliness, no sentimentality, but much feeling and passionate pain in the story ; while the pathos and realism of the brief episode of Valentina's first marriage, and poor " Billy's " death, the girl's entire ignorance of her kind and indulgent husband's state, and her un- intentional exactingness, are quite admirable. We cannot say any- thing about Valentina, so well as the author has said the following, putting the words into the month of the sister of the poor girl's faithful, unrewarded lover :—" Her story is one of those which people reading it would call unnatural, as well as sad. It is like some of the saddest of the old tales, where a man falls in love with a goddess, or a mermaid, or a fairy, and giving his life up to her who has no use for it, walks on earth as if he was in a dream. From all I have ever heard of her, and all her picture says, this woman must have been like one of those enchanting, irresponsible beings from a borderland."
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