One of Life's Slaves. Translated from the Norwegian of Jonas
Lie by Jessie Muir. (Hodder Brothers.)—There is even more than the customary proportion of Scandinavian melancholy in this story. The hero is born under an adverse star, and adverse influences pursue him to the end. But for the squalor of the circumstances, we might be reading a Greek tragedy. Nothing could be stranger than the pictures which travellers from this country bring back to us of the cheerfulness of the Norwegian peasant, and the gloomy pessimism of the novelists who claim to give characteristic descriptions of the thoughts and doings cf their countrymen. We cannot honestly compliment Miss Muir on the style of her translation. Whether it is that the Norwegian is too much for her, or that she has not an adequate mastery of her own tongue, the result from a literary point of view is not satisfactory. What is meant, for instance, by "a branch of trade" that "comprises, according to legislation, a great many more effects" than another branch ? Does it mean "In which it is lawful to sell " ?
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