Dunmara. By Ruth Murray. 3 vols. (Smith, Elder, and Co.)—
The offset of this romance. is produced. by the exaggeration of feeling which-is eo common in the writings of clever women. When anything uncommon happens to her hero or heroine, a lady-novelist always repre- sents them as working themselves into a state of fever by brooding over it. )this is certainly not what men do,—they save themselves from the fever by violent action, and women commonly by violent talk. The result is a rather curious one when, as in this case, the over-wrought feelings are vigorously depicted,—that the reader is apt to quarrel with the plot as improbable. No doubt this plot is, but not more improbable than Scott's, against whom the charge is seldom preferred. Was there ever a more improbable set of incidents than those in Guy Mannering ? But Colonel Mannering and Lucy Bertram conduct themselves in a thoroughly common-sense way, they and the other characters are people of sensibi- lity, but keep their feelings under reasonable control This produces a sense of reality in the reader which no mere improbability of events can take away. We think therefore that the author of this work should try to depict action more and feeling less, and should aim at more sober- ness of tone. Her flow of forcible writing carries the reader along no doubt, but if it is examined closely one finds that sense is sacrificed to effect, as when she writes of "an abode facing the keenest blast in winter and the fiercest sun in summer." This is an obvious impossi- bility, but the general reader gathers -from the two superlatives the sense of " very uncomfortable," and passes on. The author's style is very good, and all her female characters well drawn. The novel.on the whole is above the average, but the author might easily do better.
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