A MIRROR FOR WITCHES. By Esther Forbes. (Heine- mann. 7s.
6d.)—This is an unusual novel, admirably pro- duced, with some dramatic woodcuts by Robert Gibbings incisively appropriate to the text. The story of Doll Bilby, the Breton child, who -in New England grew into a witch, is told by an inimical spectator who gloatingly believes in her guilt. The savage zest of this narrator gives the tale a queer flavour like that which Browning imparted to his poem on the burning of the Grand Master of the Temple ; but the pathos and sweetness of the odd exotic child come luminously through the perverted chronicle. Doll has been rescued as a child by Captain Bilby when she runs naked at a pyre in Brittany whereon burn both her parents. She is dearly loved by him, but regarded with hatred by his wife. When the family settles near Salem the child becomes slightly suspect. From her own solitudes she evokes lost memories, and begins to fancy she remembers diabolic visions. Mr. Bilby dies. Timothy Thumb loves her madly in her scarlet tiffany, the black bull " Ahab " obeys her, and the mother of the Thumb Twins accuses her of putting a spell on her children. So there is a great trial with two judges, and the famous Mr. Increase Mather. Only Mr. Zelley, the preacher, in later years to be hanged as a warlock himself, will befriend her. Poor Dolly has had a lover whom she believes to be the•devil. She thinks he comes to comfort her in the end ; and she dies before the hangman gets her. It is all very realistically done ; Dolly's dreams and desires become natural and possible. The book shows remarkable intelligence, and Dolly seems a creature of hunted foreign grace in that cruel New England where Quaker women must sit in the stocks.
Previous page
