Nightshade. By Paul Gwymie. (A. Constable and Co. 6s.)— We
cannot help applying to Mr. Gwynne's novel the Horatian criticism ineredulus odi. In some respects it is an admirable piece of work. The author knows Spain and the Spaniards as well as they can be known; he can write brilliantly ; he is a master of pathos,—witness the sickness and death of the boy Kin. And in the three characters of his tale, Riri not being counted, the two sisters, Francesca and Carmen, and the blind musician, he could have found matter in plenty for a good story. But this does not satisfy him. He must bring in Dr. Meisterlimmer, the "eye-thief of Haarlem," and here comes in the unbelievable—we should not be far out if we said the unintelligible—and with it, so far at least as the present writer is concerned, the odious,—not the right word, but the only one available. There are writers who stand in need of these preternatural things, but that is because they are not at home in the natural. Mr. Gwynne is not one of them, and he has no need to adopt their methods.
Previous page
