Daniels Cortis : a Novel. From the Italian of Antonio
Fogazzaro. By Stephen Louis Simeon. (Remington and Co.)—It is not easy to create sympathy for Italian fiction. The obstacle is not so much the foreignness of the " ways " of the people and their social customs, as it is the moods of mind, the objects of life, and the curious staccato style in which modern Italian prose is written. That style departs as widely from the flowing sentences and rather overdone elegance of the older Italian writers, as the naturalist French style departs from the romantic, or the fidgetty Italian sculpture of to-day from that of the period in which the statuary's art was marked by " the rapture of repose." In Daniels Cortis we have a favourable example of the modern Italian novel, one which ought to arouse interest, even vivid curiosity, and which not only tells a clever story in a clever way, but offers some striking types of character. The love-story is not a happy one; the tragic element comes into it, and "its earthly close" is separation; but its interest is pathetic, and the under- lying political element is admirably conveyed. Count Lao is an original and entertaining personage. Mr. Simeon's translation is
excellent; it has the merit of fidelity and the charm of ease and gracefulness.
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