3 NOVEMBER 1832, Page 17

GERALDINE HAMILTON

Is a tale of the trials of a beautiful young woman, who, after being brought up in luxury and refinement, is thrown upon her connexions in a remote. and rude part of Ireland. Her father, who had made her Over to a wealthy aunt in infancy, is remarried : the young lady has to experience all the uncomfortableness of living with a careless and ill-Mannered father, and a foolish and ill-na- tured stepmbther, and without any of the resources of literature, the arts, or society. This is trial the first. It will be variously estimated : some will consider it to be no trial at all, at least compared with the severe struggles that almost every one can reckon in his own experience. The society of this squire's retired and lifeless resi- dence is at length enlivened, by the head-quarters of a detachment of military riot-and-rebellion-quellers being established under its roof. One of the officers is a man of fascinating manners and en- gaging person : he is the Major of the regiment, and said to be a man of great wealth and high connexions. He falls desperately In love with the fair recluse of this savage corner of the country : the love is returned : she only learns, at the moment of his abrupt departure, that the successful wooer is married to a young woman of rank, though an idiot. Here is trial the second. It is not well borne: fever and delirium ensue ; and in this state, during an ac- cidental interview, the heroine leaves her home with her married lover. He is bound to the Peninsula, and has only landed on the coast near her residence for a couple of hours. She is conveyed on board a ship ; and here we are required to believe that nothing

• can bepurer than the intentions of all parties. This elopement is made to appear innocent in the eyes of even the captain of the vessel—a King's ship, sailing to the seat of war. Under the name of Mrs. Mortimer, the refugee is placed in a convent : she afterwards visits and nurses her wounded lover, and becomes known

• to, or is at least seen by, numerous officers of our army in Spain. Circumstances induce her to return to England ; and she takes the situation of governess or companion in the family of a youth- ful officer; whoSe dying mornents she had soothed in the Penin- sula. Into this family, her brother—.-a naval officer, whom; a • east-off like herself, by her parent, she has not seen from boy- hood—was about to beanarried. On the marriage taking place, Mrs. Mortimer becomes once more Miss Hamilton ; and, in the es- timation' of the author or authoress, does not appear to be much the worse for all. the 'changes she has seen. Those that know her - best, appear to think most highly of her: and in proof, the captain Of the frigate in which she sailed to Portugal, having become a

lord, and been long enamoured of his passenger, besieges her with his addresses : she gives bet 'a reluctant consent, if --consent -it tie, when the wife of her married lover most conveniently dies- ' the generous naval lord surrenders his claim, and Geraldine be- comes the wife of the man who first won her heart in Country quarters.

This novel is called Self-Guidance ; which, we presume, means, "Do as you like, as far as you can :" this at least is the system of Geraldine' Hamilton. We do not see what good such a book is to do ; it seems to us nothing but an encouragement of gross weakness. If young ladies are to go oft' in moments of "delirium" and suffer nothing for it in reputation and character, we shall have Very few staying at home. If Misses may traverse the seas, assume the Mrs. in foreign countries, attend the sick-beds of gal- lant young officers, and return home as good as ever, and with no hindrance to the reassuming of the maiden Miss, then the age is a virtuous age, innocence is its own surest protection, and we are all better folks than we had an idea of.

The best thing we can say of this Geraldine Hamilton is, tlrat we read the boo?: through. Its pictures are not very strongly drawn, neither is there any thing very able or clever in the nar- rative; still, we read it through. It possesses in parts a certain air of truth and reality, which never lose their charm.