NOVELS OF THE WEEK.*
The Death of the Gods, by Dmitri Merejkowski, is, as we learn from the introduction contributed by the trans- lator, the first section of a trilogy named Christ and Anti- Christ. In the volume before us Julian the Apostate is the central figure ; in the two remaining volumes the role is filled by Leonardo da Vinci and Peter the Great. In all these the idge in;2re is the eternal antagonism between the pagan and Christian elements in our nature, elements which, according to Merejkowski, are equally legitimate and sacred, his theory being that the really perfect man is "he who can ally in harmonious equilibrium the cult of Dionysus and the cult of Christ " His choice of hero and period is ambitious, but in the main is justified by results. The narrative follows history closely, though with some curious deviations, as in regard to Julian's relations to his wife Helena ; and vitality is lent to his descriptions, not only by his obvious study of the best authorities, but by his familiarity with the various regions in which the scene is laid. Let no one, however, run away with the notion that this is a laboriously conscientious historical noveL Merejkowski is a scholar but no pedant, and * (1.) Christ and Anti-Christ : the Death of the Gods. By Dmitri Merej- kowski. Translated by Herbert Trench, sometime Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford. London. A. Constable and Co. [6s.]—(2.) rester,:: the Romance of a Life. By " 'carte:lie." London : T. Fisher Unwin. [68.]— (3.) A Union of Hearts. By Katharine Tynan. London : James Nisbet and. Co. [6s.?—(4.) A Jilts .Journal. By " Rita." London : T. Fisher Unwin. t6s.1— 5.) Blue Bonnets Up. By Thomas Pinkerton. London : John Long. fis. — 6.) Jesse : a Realistic Fairy Tale. By George Marlow. London : y, Long, and Co. [68..)—(7.) 1'he Follies of Captain Daly. By F. Norrep ConnelL London • Grant Richards. Ols.]—(5.) Bagsby's Daughter. By Bessie and Marie van VorsL London : Grant Richards. [6.J
Waile the mise-en-seene is an admirable piece of reconstruction, the psychology is largely modern. As the translator excellently observes, "writers of genius who seem to write historical novels in reality are only transferring to the stage of the world a drama which is being played in their own souls." The character of Julian as interpreted by Merejkowski is, at any rate in the earlier stages of his career, in close accord- ance with its presentment by Gibbon. Thus in the Russian portrait dissimulation has passed into second nature, while his superstitious temperament renders him a prey to vulgar -charlatanry. Most of the characters are historical, but the principal female role is assigned to an invented person- age, Arsinoe, the orphan heiress of a Roman Senator by a 'Gothic mother, who by her independent manners, her fondness for every sort of intellectual, social, and emo- tional excitement, her addiction to art, and her disregard for conventionality is almost indistinguishable from the ?heroine of a modern emancipation novel. Anatolius, her constant admirer, with his alternations between languid dilettanteism and feverish energy, half man of the world, half mystic, is an essentially modern character, much on the lines of Laurence Oliphant. Lampridius, again, dis- courses on the canons of style . much in the style of a modern French symbolist. But if these and other figures are anachronistic in temperament, they are far from being puppets. The Death of the Gods is not a mere • costume story : the personages are drawn with such minute- ness as to suggest that they were very real to their creator, and in their strength and weakness they are eminently human. The narrative, we may note, is not continuous, the gaps occasionally covering many years of Julian's life. Neverthe- less, all the most notable events of his extraordinary career at illustrated in a series of brilliant tableaux, from the days of his semi-imprisonment at Macellum to his death in the disastrous campaign against the Persians. Merejkowski's remarkable novel, though founded on far more accurate first-hand knowledge, is less impressive in its pageantry than Sienkievdcz's Quo Vadis ? Still there is no lack of exciting and dramatic situations,—scenes in the cata- combs, in the hippodrome, in the caverns of the wizard Maximus, on the battlefields of Germany and Persia. Italian's character is finely conceived, and the progress of 'sis disillusionment as he realises his impotence either to convert the Galileans or to recreate the national ido; of ancient Hellas is handled with a fine sense of tragic irony. But the very detachment of the author, the constant balancing .of :.the claims of the rival 'systems, Olympian and Galilean, • will not satisfy all readers. The concentration of a partisan, they will say, is preferable to the attitude of one who preaches that hedonism is reconcilable with altruism, or that there are two truths and that both are equal. It remains to be said -that Mr. Trench's translation is admirable from a literary point of view, but leaves a good deal to be desired in regard to accuracy of scholarship, names of places and persons being misspelt—why, e.g., is the deathplace of Constantino • given as Mopsucrenam or Lucian described as the satirist of Samos P—and Latin quotations disfigured by misprints and faulty punctuation.
The author of Yestere is, we gather from the preface, not oily an Armenian, but an Armenian who witnessed and went through the terrible scenes enacted some seven years ago. Anyhow, this deeply interesting and tragic, story of the for- times of a group of Armenian families resident at Amide, and Haired together by the common bond of suffering, conveys the anmistakable impression of resting on a solid base of per- sonal experience. All things considered, we can only wonder at the moderation which " Vartenie " displays in dealing with episodes which more than any other events in modern times have damaged, the fair fame of European civilisation. One may note, too, as one of the most significant features of the book, , that the burden of responsibility for the massacres is attached to the incendiaries and revolutionists—the nu* worthless of the Armenian race—who' were con- stantly playing into the hands of the Turkish agents- provocateurs. " Vartenie " is, in a word,. no eulogist of her compatriots ; she is .,conscious of their., weakness as . well as of their patience. As for ¶ the future, she can only express the view that the end is not yet, and echo the cry, Broriare aliguis nostris ex ossi bus ultor. "The laws of nature are inexorable, and retribution will come souse &e% ,beuyteryfos. us, who cannot see the working of the whole gyat thing looks dark and dreary." Yestere is not cheerful rea• , nor does it minister to British complacency, but its traga quality, its passionate earnestness—not to mention the excel- lence of its portraiture of Turks, Armenians, and Kurds.-- invest it with a certain melancholy attractiveness.
That incorrigible optimist, Miss Tynan, in her new novel, 4 Union of Hearts, introduces her readers, as usual, to a well- bred and charming circle of delightful Irish people. Most of her characters are in easy circumstances, and life flows on so pleasantly that the reader regards even a plot against the life of the English hero with perfect equanimity, sereaely confident that Miss Tynan will not disturb the smooth fortunes of her beloved Irish heroine with so frightful a catastrophe as the murder of her lover. This type of fiction is restful to the imagination; it is written with tact and taste ; and yet such is the effect of the certainty of a happy ending that one can no more wax enthusiastic over it than the' printing of a photographic plate.
The advertisements of " Rita's " newest
Journal, set forth that in a private letter the author has -described the-book as her best in her own opinion. This is really a case of "Save me from my friends," for while the hopes of the reader are excited by this ingenuous expression of opinion, it cannot truthfully be said that these high expec. tations are realised. The book is worked out with a good deal of painstaking care, but the characters are lacking -in vitality,—e.g., the person who is obviously intended to be one of the most impressive actors in the pldt, the uncle. guardian of the heroine, being rather commonpJace and shadowy. Again, the touch of nxelodrania in the portraiture of the heroine's mother is ineffective. We readily confess, however, that the puff preliminary causes the reader to begin the book with a prejudice, otherwise one would have been content to recognise in it an ordinary novel of the semi- society type, and of quite average merit.
There is a terrible amount of Scotch. in Mr. Pinkerton's Blue Bonnets Up; indeed, the ordinary Southron might, on glancing through the book, ahncst doubt whether it was ,written in his native language. He would have, no doubts as to whether it was spelt in " Englieh," for that it most .certainly is not. When one has penetrated the veil of the unfamiliar tongue one finds •a brisk little story, hanging on to' the events of the '45. But although we hear of the Young Chevalier at Holy-rood, the book is not mainly concerned with the outcome of his fortunes, and practically ends before the advance into England. Mr. Pinkerton has a fine villain and .a pretty heroine as ingredients in his romance, and contrives to ;furaish an entertainment of moderate rather than absorbing interest.
Why Mr. George Marlow should call his novel, Jesse, "a realistic fairy story" is, though a good deal less interesting, as undiscoverable as the riddle of the Sphinx. Careful perusal fails to discover in it anything but a commonplace ordinary story of everyday life with a very painful opening. But then, of course; Mr. Marlow gives no definition of his phrase, so that he may apply it to anything he pleases."' The Follies of Captain Daly might well have been allowed to stand on its own merits without trusting to the dubious support of the puff preliminary, as it is an excellent piece of work of its dashing, slashing, irresponsible kind. The hero is an Irish cavalry officer, with a purely disinterested lave of danger, a very susceptible heart, and a genitus ffOr achieving
the impossible, whose talents find congenial scope in cam- paigns in the Low Countries, the Peninsula, and at Waterloo. Daly's astounding performances — notably the crowning exploit of securing Napoleon's sword—remind one not 'a little of Bret Harte's famous parody of Charles Lever. But the author skilfully conciliates our historical sense by represent.. ing Daly as an officially unrecognised, because unconven- tional and often insubordinate hero. Altogether, this is a diverting as well as exciting military fantasia. Bagsby's Daughter is an ingeniously 'Constructed novel , which has for its cardinal incident the accidental separation of a pair of lovers on their wedding day, the bride sailing to England, while the bridegroom is detained in New York. The present writer is old enough to remember reading. Charles Beade's Hard Cash when it first came out, aiid. confesses to finding his treatment of that romantic theme far more thrill- ing than the latest variation. For one thing, it is impossible to be deeply interested in a hero who proposes to the heroine five minutes after he sees her for the first time, or in the heroine who accepts so precipitate a suitor.
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