IT is not often that writers achieve equal success in
chronicling the homely annals of the poor and in awaking the clarion tones of military romance. Yet this distinction cannot be denied to Mrs. Woods, who in her new story marks a yet further departure from the manner of her earliest ventures in fiction; and a distinct advance on her previous novel of adven- ture, Sons of the Sword. The period chosen is the same, that of the Peninsular Campaign, and the scene is again partly laid in Spain ; but whereas the focus of the former story was the Court of Joseph Bonaparte at Madrid, the interest is now centred in the fortunes of the exiled Ferdinand VII., and above all in the adventures of those gallant Spaniards "Who fought in vain For those who knew not to resign or reign."
• The King's Revoke. By Margaret L. Woods. London : Smith, Elder.
and Co. 16s.] •
Deing the story of a lost,, or, more correctly speaking, a betrayed, cause, it necessarily takes on a somewhat sombre complexion ; but the author's enthusiasm for the undying fascination of the Spanish character and the picturesqueness of the Spanish landscape, the brilliance and eloquence of her descriptive passages, and the charm with which she has con- trived to invest her principal characters, go far to reconcile the reader to a narrative in which failure and disillusionment are a necessarily foregone conclusion.
Following a well-established precedent in this domain of fiction, Mrs. Woods, while introducing historical personages as occasion demands, assigns the chief rille to imaginary characters. Foremost among the latter are Patrick Dillon, a Hispano-Irish soldier of fortune, who plays a leading part in the plot to carry . off Ferdinand VII. from his prison at Valencay and restore him to the throne. Patrick is by residence and breeding more Spanish than Hibernian ; but in his fearless temper, his vivacity, and love of action he harks back to his Irish forbears. His . claim to the rank of hero, however, is effectively disputed by Charlesworth, an English Menu at Tours—where the plot for the rescue of the King is matured—a man of a certain grave but engaging charm, excellently contrasted with the more mercurial attractions of Dillon. Tha real heroine is, we suppose, the beautiful Luzita., the young Marquesa de Santa Coloma, whose innocent, unfaltering devotion to the exiled and un- worthy King cannot fail to win the sympathy of the reader; but Mrs. Woods has given us two other charming portraits in Madame Gerard, a Republican grande dame, if the phrase be allowed, and her daughter Caroline. Dillon's associate, the pseudo-Comte d'Haguerty, is a more conventional type of the mercenary intriguer, and Dillon him- self suffers somewhat from his constant and occasionally undignified appearances in female .disguise. But if in her handling of incident and of the stock properties and machinery of the novel of adventure Mrs. Woods sometimes falls below the level of less accomplished practitioners, these defects are more than redeemed by the fine literary quality of her narrative, the .grace of her dialogue, and her sensitive and poetic appreciation of the nobler elements of chivalry,—whether Spanish, French, or British. The glimpses of Talleyrand, and the conception of the dignified but half-hearted young King, destined to disappoint so bitterly the hopes of his faithful partisans, show imagination and insight of a high order. In spite, therefore, of sundry misprints and a frequently faulty punctuation, the book is a delight to read for the charm of its characterisation, for its fine historic sense of the glory and weakness of Spain, and for a genuine distinction of style unsurpassed by contemporary writers of this class of fiction.
The Debtor. By Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman. (Harper and Brothers. Gs.)—Mrs. Wilkins-Freeman does more than keep up the quality of the books which she wrote as Miss Mary Wilkins. There is not very much in this story of that peculiar nicety of observation of the minds of homely people by which Miss Wilkins made her reputation ; still, The Debtor is in its own way quite as successful a literary achievement as were her earliest books. It is not a novel which can be recommended to any one looking merely for entertainment, as the story has rather an uncomfortable effect on the reader's mind,—in tho beginning the doings of Arthur Carroll (the debtor) are irritating, and in the end tragic. The curious difference between American, and English domestic life is unconsciously brought out by Mrs. Wilkins-Freeman when she makes the Carroll family pose as millionaires in the country town of Bambridge ; for she shows that it is possible to do this in America while at the same time keeping only one indoor servant. A family of six persons who over here kept what is called a " general " would certainly obtain no credit on the ground of being boundlessly wealthy. The most attractive figure in the book is that of the quondam lawyer Randolph Anderson, who, on the failure of his legal practice, has become the village grocer. Tho simplicity with which he serves out groceries to the lady of his heart is admirably depicted. He is a good example of the shrewd comment of an old- fashioned domestic servant : "True gentry never suspects their- selves." Anderson and his mother are delightful people, ex- cellently drawn, and Charlotte Carroll when she marries the grocer has every prospect of 'complete happiness. The book is full of little vignettes of village life charmingly depicted, and the story is well put together.
• • The Waters of Destruction. By Alice Perrin. (Chatto and Windus. 6s.)—Mrs. Perrin always gives her hooks a distinc- tive]y Indian atmosphere, and even those of her readers who have never been in India are completely convinced of the truth- fulness of the picture which is put before them. The Waters of Destruction is the story of Stephen Dare, an unfortunate young Indian civilian, whose poverty prevents him from quitting the lonely post in his charge even for a short holiday. All his savings are devoted to the maintenance of his mother and her husband and her second family, and his circumstances are terribly straitened. The struggle which he makes before, in his loneliness, ho succumbs to a native marriage is well and dramatically given, and also the disillusionment which his native wife soon makes him suffer. The marriage, it may be said, would probably not be upheld in a Court of Law, but the fact of the marriage service having been performed makes Stephen Dare very properly consider it as binding. The attain- ment of a hero's happiness by the death of his wife never makes a very pleasant ending to a story, but in the circum- stances no special violence is done to the claims of poetic justice when "the waters of destruction" overwhelm the unfortunate Sunia during her husband's absence in England. Mrs. Perrin, who must now be regarded as quite in the front rank of Anglo- Indian romancers, gives a vivid picture of the life of an irrigation officer on a sub-division fifty miles from any railway, and no one who considers Anglo-Indian life as being invariably highly seasoned with balls and scandal will fail to recognise, after reading this book, that there is another and less lively side to the life of an Indian official.
The Hundred Days. By Max Pemberton. (Cassell and Co. Gs.)—Although Mr. Pemberton cannot be called a great historical novelist, the story of the Hundred Days is such an exciting subject that the reader cannot fail to enjoy this novel. Mr. Pemberton makes us understand the extraordinary devotion felt to Napoleon by his followers, though it must be confessed that the figure of the Emperor himself is not really successful. It is almost impossible, it would seem, for any novelist to give his readers a real flesh-and-blood Napoleon, and not merely a list of the mannerisms of the Emperor. The love story in the book is rather confused, and not particularly attractive. The reader nevertheless will follow the novel, from its beginning on the shores of the Mediterranean to its end on the field of Waterloo, for the sake of the thrilling interest which cannot but be aroused by Napoleon's desperate venture.
French Nan. By Agnes and Egerton Castle. (Smith, Elder and Co. 6s.)—Mr. and Mrs. Egerton Castle's new book is of the very slightest texture. It is a story of an eighteenth-century marriage, and of the means taken by Squire Day, the hero, to make his town-bred wife contented with life in the country. The book is gracefully written and is easy reading, but it will strike many readers as being as artificial as the age which it is intended to represent.
The Parson's Wood. By Violet A. Simpson. (Eveleigh Nash. Os.)—Miss Violet Simpson's work is always agreeable reading, and she once more contrives to get into very sympathetic touch with the period about which she is writing. Her present book, however, is not the equal in point of liveliness to "The Bonnet Conspirators," or in ingenuity of construction to "The Sovereign Power." In choosing the late seventeenth century as the date of the story the author has abandoned the period of which she usually writes for one over a hundred years earlier. Joanna, the heroine, is a most ingenuous and attractive young person. She is the daughter of a Sussex innkeeper, and her devotion to the Braythwaytes (the family of the neighbouring squire) goes near to costing her dear. Lovers of exciting episodes will find many situations which will please them in The Parson's Wood, while a very graceful love story adds attraction to the novel.
Previous page
