Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
which this popular author is endowed . He seems literally to glean from English history coffers full of romantic matter , only requiring such a practised pen as his to convert into novels of absorbing interest ; and although we are now and then astonished at the coolness with which deeds of intolerable horror and crime are related , the dramatic cast of the plot is generally so complete , that we cannot be easily persuaded to let the book out of our hands before Ave have learnt the results of so many
crosspurposes and heart-breakings . " Tilbury Nogs" * is a sporting novel , in which an unfortunate individual , aiming to be notorious in a lino of life for Avhich he is eminently unfitted , manages to he unsuccessful in everything he undertakes , except one , —and that consists in his getting himself married , —thanks to a somnambulic mystery , which removes most of the difficulties in the way of his succeeding in the attempt from his path . " Tom Thornton" f is a " something "
, in the same line , not very intelligible , and we must say not very amusing . It describes the forced residence at Boulogne of a " fast man , " who , having been lured into debt by accommodating tradesmen , and a natural inclination to live beyond his means , ends a life of self-caused unhappiness in misery . The subject is commonplace enough , and not very ably redeemed by the manner in wliich it is treated ; yet the moral is as it should be , and as , of course , everybody knows , after the first twenty pages have been
read , what it would be under similar circumstances . In this respect it is far inferior to " Janet Mowbray , " J which , with higher objects in view , is really an excellent tale , full of interest and graphic delineations of real life . To pecuniary troubles the hero adds the indulgence ofa passion which a sense of honour prevents him from divulging , and which he afterwards finds out has been all the time reciprocated in silence by its object . The loss of a fortune , a severe struggle against adverse circumstances , and a thousand temptations , interspersed Avith some well-written love scenes , make up the sum total of a novel , which has more merit than might have been expected from the very ordinary incidents and accidents of which it is composed .
"Lewell Pastures , " § b y the author of " Sir Erederic Derwent , " and other popular novels , is artistically superior to any that we have yet had occasion to mention ; and although it might have been reduced to one volume by the omission of several matters , —such as essays and conversations on agricultural improvements , & c , the interest is well sustained . In point of style it is not unlike " Shirley , " though the narrative itself is very different , the writer affecting , perhaps more than is desirable , a certain wild and wayward mode of communicating his or her thoughts
upon particular subjects , much in the same manner as the " Bells" were wont to do in their excellent and ably-written fictions . Of this style of romance writing , however , " Trial and Triumph" || is not only the best , in a literary point of view , but it is also far superior in originality of conception and excellence of execution . Every character in the book is well drawn , and the whole story is so completely worked out as to leave little to desire . Slight as are the facts , and not altogether palatable or in place in a novel
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Critical Notices Of The Literature Of The Last Three Months,
which this popular author is endowed . He seems literally to glean from English history coffers full of romantic matter , only requiring such a practised pen as his to convert into novels of absorbing interest ; and although we are now and then astonished at the coolness with which deeds of intolerable horror and crime are related , the dramatic cast of the plot is generally so complete , that we cannot be easily persuaded to let the book out of our hands before Ave have learnt the results of so many
crosspurposes and heart-breakings . " Tilbury Nogs" * is a sporting novel , in which an unfortunate individual , aiming to be notorious in a lino of life for Avhich he is eminently unfitted , manages to he unsuccessful in everything he undertakes , except one , —and that consists in his getting himself married , —thanks to a somnambulic mystery , which removes most of the difficulties in the way of his succeeding in the attempt from his path . " Tom Thornton" f is a " something "
, in the same line , not very intelligible , and we must say not very amusing . It describes the forced residence at Boulogne of a " fast man , " who , having been lured into debt by accommodating tradesmen , and a natural inclination to live beyond his means , ends a life of self-caused unhappiness in misery . The subject is commonplace enough , and not very ably redeemed by the manner in wliich it is treated ; yet the moral is as it should be , and as , of course , everybody knows , after the first twenty pages have been
read , what it would be under similar circumstances . In this respect it is far inferior to " Janet Mowbray , " J which , with higher objects in view , is really an excellent tale , full of interest and graphic delineations of real life . To pecuniary troubles the hero adds the indulgence ofa passion which a sense of honour prevents him from divulging , and which he afterwards finds out has been all the time reciprocated in silence by its object . The loss of a fortune , a severe struggle against adverse circumstances , and a thousand temptations , interspersed Avith some well-written love scenes , make up the sum total of a novel , which has more merit than might have been expected from the very ordinary incidents and accidents of which it is composed .
"Lewell Pastures , " § b y the author of " Sir Erederic Derwent , " and other popular novels , is artistically superior to any that we have yet had occasion to mention ; and although it might have been reduced to one volume by the omission of several matters , —such as essays and conversations on agricultural improvements , & c , the interest is well sustained . In point of style it is not unlike " Shirley , " though the narrative itself is very different , the writer affecting , perhaps more than is desirable , a certain wild and wayward mode of communicating his or her thoughts
upon particular subjects , much in the same manner as the " Bells" were wont to do in their excellent and ably-written fictions . Of this style of romance writing , however , " Trial and Triumph" || is not only the best , in a literary point of view , but it is also far superior in originality of conception and excellence of execution . Every character in the book is well drawn , and the whole story is so completely worked out as to leave little to desire . Slight as are the facts , and not altogether palatable or in place in a novel