THIS WEEK'S BOOKS
FIRE chief interest in Mr. Clement. Shorter's edition of The Twelve Adventurers and Other Stories, by Charlotte Bront6 (Hodder and Stoughton), lies in the free imagination and the powers of dismal invention which Charlotte already displayed in her girlhood. The tales were written -between the 'ages of twelve and twenty-one, and were never intended for publication. The most naive and charming is- the tale of " Albion and.Marina." Albion, Marquis of Tagus, is, the hero.
" He had entered his nineteenth year ; his stature was lofty; his form equal in the magnificence of its proportions to that of Apollo Belvedere. . . . His mental faculties were in exact keeping with such an exterior, being of the highest order."
Marina was not of equal rank, but she was a model girl, and amused herself with " reading the best English, French, and Italian works (all which languages she understood) in her father's extensive library, and sometimes a little light needle- work." In order to show himself a man of mettle; Albion takes to literature :—
" Suffice it to say he became one of the greatest poets of the age ; and one of the chief motives that influenced him in his exer- tions for renown was to render himself worthy to possess such a treasure as Marina."
The tragic end of the story is better left for the reader's own discovery.
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