In Spite of Fortune. By Maurice Gay. 3 vols. (Samuel
Tinsley.) —Among the difficulties which press on the novelist, two seem to be peculiarly grave. Two people, genuinely attached to each other, and destined to be united, must be separated for a time. How else are the three volumes to be filled ? But how stale a device it is to suppress letters, and how flimsy the pretexts by which rivalries and misunder- standings are created ! Then, how is the villain to be punished ? The writers who pleased our grandfathers used to shoot him. Now a rail- way accident seems to be the accepted form of Nemesis. But there was room for much variety of incident about the shooting ; the accident is inevitably monotonous. The printing-office might almost keep a couple of pages in type for this purpose. Mr. Gay fails lamentably in his plot. Nor are his characters striking. Ilis dialogue is a little better, but we cannot recommend his novel as an eligible venture to readers.
Previous page
