NOVELS.
THE DISENTANGLERS.*
Ma. LANG has more than once collaborated with other workers in the domain of fiction—Mr. Rider Haggard and Mr. Mason, to be explicit—but since be gave us a "shilling .shocker " some fifteen years ago he has abstained from single- banded cultivation of the field of fiction as it is commonly understood. To this period of abstinence he has now put a ,-term by the publication of The Disentanglers, which ran its irresponsible course to the delectation of many readers in the pages of Longman's .Magazine. We welcome the appearance in collected form of the series of episodes of which it is made vp, because they undoubtedly conduce to diversion, because they proclaim Mr. Lang to be an uncompromising champion of the happy ending, and because they prove that thirty years
• of assiduous membership of "the honourable corporation of the goosequill " have not abated his cheerfulness or impaired the elegance of his style. Of his versatility it would be impertinent to speak at this time of day. 'Of all living authors he is the one who comes nearest • to fitting Johnson's epitaph on Goldsmith. In one . sense he has no limitations,—in his choice of subjects. When it comes to fiction, however, Mr. Lang reminds us somewhat of the British cavalry in the Boer War. The light horseman is handicapped by his equipment. The man is "splendid," but he is hampered by his impedimenta. Or, to put it in another way, the multiplicity of his interests, the excellence of his memory, the wide range of his reading, impair the efficiency and directness of his appeal to the average reader, in whom he presupposes something of his • own encyclopaedic attainments. In a word, he is too highly educated, and above all, too allusive, to be widely popular. With these deductions, we can cordially recommend the in- • genious extravaganza now published in book form with the added attraction of Mr. Henry Ford's graceful illustrations. ' The formula adopted is one of which the most artistic ”examples in recent fiction are to be found in the works of R. L. Stevenson, the most popular in the inventions of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Mr. Cutcliffe Ilyne. You have a .central figure, or set of figures, and a series of disconnected
• nu Diaintnnelors. By Andrew Lang. With Illustrations by IL J. Ford.. I•endnn: Longums sad Co. [66..1
episodes in which these figures are engaged. The method lends itself specially well to publication in instalments, while there is enough continuity and connection to justify their subsequent issue in a form which combines the advantages of a collection of short stories with those of the continuous novel.
In the volume before us the idee mere is that of a society, started by two impecunious but well-connected, highly educated, and altogether engaging young men, for the assistance of persons anxious to extricate their relatives from matrimonial entanglements. A generous friend acts as their banker, their own connections provide them with unimpeachable references, while by way of staff they enlist the services of a number of accomplished and handsome young ladies and gentlemen whose affections are already engaged. Thus the modus operandi is to supply an antidote in the shape of a counter-attraction already immune to infection. The adventures of the professional disentanglers are then narrated in a series of chapters, in which Mr. Lang finds congenial scope not only for the exercise of invention and the display of his whimsical humour, but for the discharge of a good many satiric shafts at the social and literary follies of the day. It may he not unfairly urged that the basis of extravaganza on which the whole thing rests robs certain episodes of the claim to serious interest which they are intended to put forward. If, however, Mr. Lang fails to move us deeply when he deviates into seriousness, the general effect of the entertainment is so exhilarating that this defect may be readily overlooked. In conclusion, we cannot but express our admiration at the taste and skill be displays in treating situations which in the hands of a less dexterous practitioner might easily be invested with an equivocal significance.
Previous page
