NOVELS.
THE ADVENTURES OF HARRY REVEL.*
MR. Qun.LER-Coucn's new novel is delightful to read, but by no means easy to review. It is inevitable, to begin with, that
one should note the Stevensonian spirit in which it is steeped, and it is difficult to bring out that point without labouring it unduly, or conveying the impression that the book has been con- ceived and carried out in a spirit of imitative discipleship, which would be most unfair to the author. For this is really not a case
of conscious assimilation of the methods of a forerunner; it might be more accurately described as the convergence of talent. That " Q" must have been influenced by " R. L. S." is obvious. Did he not, for instance, complete the unfinished manuscript of St. Ives with a fidelity, a literary piety so to speak, which rendered the result unique in the annals of collaboration P But if no other writer could have finished St. Ives so well as " Q," no mere imitator of Stevenson could have given us such a fascinating romance as that unfolded in the volume before us. In other words, if the atmosphere recalls Stevenson. one is never disconcerted by the resemblance; while the peculiar flavour of the recital is the essential outcome of " Q's" own individuality.
Speaking roughly, The Adventures of Harry Revel belongs to the class of " life history," to the composition of which Mr. Balfour recommended modern novelists to address them- selves in a speech delivered some years ago. But we are happily spared any tedious preliminaries as to the antecedents and parentage of the hero and narrator, partly because Mr. Quiller-Couch is a master of the art of omission, but chiefly because Harry starts life in the Geneva Foundling Hospital at Plymouth, and the secret of his birth, though only vaguely hinted, remains unsolved up to the moment when we part company with him on his return from the Peninsular War. In a few animated pages the diet, the discipline, and the amenities of the Foundling Hospital are brought vividly before us, and we make the acquaintance of perhaps the most engaging character in the volume,— Miss Plinlimmon, the matron, a lady of good family but reduced fortunes, with a heart of gold and a weakness for composing occasional verses of delicious ineptitude. We regret Harry's severance from his kind protectress when, after prematurely emulating the feats of a steeple-jack, be is apprenticed to a sweep; but the pang is soon mitigated by the discovery that Mr. and Mrs. Trapp are in their way almost as interesting as Miss Plinlimmon. But that is " Q's " agreeable way : his characters are all originals, and if his habit of glorifying or accentuating types may be objected to as impairing the verisimilitude of the whole, he has at least the precedent of Dickens to justify it. Mr. Trapp doubles the role of chimney-sweep with that of fisherman, so that the list of Harry's adventures and accomplishments is sub- stantially increased before the fatal day when, "stumbling into horrors," he happens upon the body of a newly murdered Jew, and, overcome by the burden of 'unjust suspicion, takes to precipitate flight. After a succession of scalp-raising escapes by sea and land, he is rescued by a Cornish Justice, hidden from pursuit, and becomes the chief agent in foiling the iniquitous schemes of the real murderer and his accomplices. Once in Cornwall, Mr. Quiller-Couch is entirely in his element, and gives us a whole portrait-gallery of worthies and ruffians. But, unlike many modern romancers, he is never so captivated by the dramatic possibilities of unmitigated crime as to neglect the claims of virtue and innocence. The picture of the blind old Major Brook dictating his translation of the Georgics is wholly charming, and Isabel, his daughter, is so engaging a figure that we owe Mr. Quiller-Couch a grudge for imposing such a tragic penalty on her rash bestowal of trust. Evidently he holds that women are poor judges of character, for that robust and capable Amazon, Miss Lydia Belcher, is saved more by luck than by good management from an equally humiliating catastrophe. From Cornwall Mr. Quiller-Couch whisks us off on his magic &Air to the Peninsula, and dramatically despatches his two villains in the midst of the sack of Ciudad Rodrigo. From a casual reference in the narrative we gather that it is his intention to continue the recital of his hero's adventures in a further volume. That is a • TA. Adventures of Barry Rood. By A. T. Quiller-Couch. London : Carat and Co. Dal
good hearing, for the present voluine, admirable in itself, clamours for a sequel, Harry being still a minor and unpro- vided with a lady-love.
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