An Interrupted Friendship. By E. L. Voynich. (Hutchinson and Co.
6s.)—Although this book will prove somewhat mysterious reading to people who do not remember Mrs. Voynich's earlier novel, "The Gadfly," they will really get more satisfaction out of it than those who can call to mind the former work accurately. The moral situation does not quite fit, and the figure of Felix Rivarez is just a trifle inconsistent. That being so, and the other volume having been published some years ago, it seems better to take this book on its own merits as a separate entity. Considered without reference to "The Gadfly," the central figures of An Interrupted Friendship are Rene Martel, or Marteurelles, and his crippled sister Marguerite. The picture of family life in the old château in Burgundy is drawn with singular vividness. The characters are all sharply differentiated one from another, and altogether the first chapters of the book are extremely interesting. The second division of the story, the account of an expedition to South America in which Rene takes part, is also excellent reading, and it is here that the figure of Rivarez first appears. The end of the book is weaker, and in it the author carries her passion for withholding explanation to an extreme point. There is really no reason why Rivarez should jump to the conclusion that Rene has betrayed the ravings of his delirium because Marguerite, whom he knows to be a singularly acute young person, guesses that in early life his trust in human nature was destroyed by a man having deceived him. The betrayal of trust does not seem so singular a circumstance that it could not possibly be guessed at, and the way in which Rivarez flounces off (no other expression is possible) without leaving either Marguerite or Rene any opportunity for explanation is so exasperatingly absurd as to destroy the reader's belief and pleasure in the book. As a whole, however, the novel is far above the usual standard of the present day, and is well worth reading.
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