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May 23,1857.] THE LEADER. 497
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NEW NOVELS. Barchestcr Towers. By Anthon...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Carlyle's Cromwell. — Oliver Cromwell's ...
fortunes by what effecti \ e work and quick insight he gradually gained , step by step , the eminence of a throne ; how , in short , he became the King of En gland because he was the King , the man of the time fit for the work . Of Carlyle ' s labour it may seem churlish to say a word not laudatory ; vet while grateful for the immense and conscientious labour which hasgone to the production of these immortal volumes , we must say that he is far below himself in the historical elucidations which are for the most part wantino- in picture , colour , and often in completeness ; whereas on too many occasions he imitates Dryasdust , whom he so scorns . Admirably has he nni / 1 * All past Centuries have rotted down , and gone confusedly dumb and quiet , even as that Seventeenth is now threatening to do . Histories are as perfect as the Historian is -wise and is gifted with an eye and a soul ! For the leaf } - blossoming Present Time springs from the whole "Past , remembered and unrememberable , so confusedly as we say : and truly the Ait of History , the grand difference between a Dr 3 'asdust and a sacred Poet , is very much even this : To distinguish well what does still reach to the surface , and is alive and frondent for us ; and what reaches no longer to the surface , but moulders safe underground , never to send forth leaves or fruit for mankind any more : of the former we shall rejoice to hear ; to hear of the latter will be an affliction to us ; of the latter only Pedants and DulLards , and disastrous malefactors to the world , -will find good to speak . By wise memory and by wise oblivion : it lies all there ! Without oblivion , there is no remembrance possible . When both oblivion and memory are wise , when the general soul of man is clear , melodious , true , there may come a modem Iliad as memorial of the Past : when both are foolish , and the general soul is overclouded with confusions , with unveracities and discords , there is a ' Rushworthian chaos . ' If he had but remembered this , and exercised a ' wise oblivion / he would have saved himself days and months of ineffectual labour , and the reader much tedium . Why should he ransack old archives , histories , genealogies , and pamphlets to ascertain that Captain Smith was the son of old Smith , a Nottinghamshire man , ' or that Mr . Brown was related to Sir Jasper Jones , both of them so little memorable that diligent research can only rescue thus much respecting them ? Is not all this editorial annotation mere Dryasdust ' unwise memory ? ' How gladly would we exchange all the details given about zwmieinorable men , for a little more connected history ! In spite of this too conscientious fulfilment of the editorial task , we must say of these volumes that by the necessities of the case they will live as long as the English language , and are very much to be recommended to every reader not yet so fortunate as to possess them .
May 23,1857.] The Leader. 497
May 23 , 1857 . ] THE LEADER . 497
New Novels. Barchestcr Towers. By Anthon...
NEW NOVELS . Barchestcr Towers . By Anthony Trollope , Author of ' The Warden . ' 3 vols . ( Longman and ( Jo . )—The Warden was a remarkable book ; Bai--chester Towers is still more remarkable . The one , indeed , is a development of the other . In the former , the interest was in connexion with a charitable trust , the warden of which enjoyed his comparative sinecure in peace of conscience until an article in the Jupiter almost persuaded him that he had been for years engaged in robbing the poor ; in the latter , the texture is not so simple . There is more story , more action , less concentration ; the characters are more abstract , the incidents more diversified . First in bad eminence is Mr . Slope , the Low Church chaplain of Bishop Proudie . He is a large-handed , large-footed , broad chested , wide-shouldered Evangelical ; his hair is red and lank ; his complexion is that of questionable beef ; his forehead shines unpleasantly ; from his immense mouth , between his thin , bloodless lips , and under his spongy , porous nose , he pours forth divine anger against high-pitched roofs , full-breasted black silk waistcoats , prayerbooks printed in red letters , and other Puseyisms . This pillar of the Low Church stands confronted by Dr . Grantly , son of that mild-eyed bishop whom we knew in The Warden ; but he has long an ally in Mrs . Proudie , wife of a wretched bishop , who at the last , however , is the mortal enemy of Slope . Slope's projects fill a large part of the novel , and it may appear surprising that , out of materials so unpromising , Mr . Trollope should have elicited so much that is interesting . But the book is not so pleasing as it is powerful ; we may object to the unequal and prejudiced distribution of satire , yet the astonishing energy with which the author writes , the sharpness and concision of his style , the light , unlaboured scatterings of allusion , the points that strike in all directions against the farces and follies of our ecclesiastical civilization , more than atone for nil that is unfair , and the little that is repulsive , in the three volumes . la contrast with the red-headed chaplain , bony , florid , redundant in joint and sinew , attitudines Madeline VeseyNeroni , daughter of Dr . Stanhope , but wife of an infamous Italian , by whom she had been deserted . This beauty , crippled by violence , but retaining a perfect nose , mouth , chin , and bust , resolves never more to be seen , except upon a eouch , and is carried like a goddess from saloon to saloon . She stamps her name under a gold coronet on a gilt-bordered card , and , crowned with some mystery and endless grace , is enthroned upon 11 sofa in the episcopal palace while a reception is at its height . A white velvet robx ) , white lace worked with pearls across her bosom and round the armlets , a band of red velvet across her brow , a crimson silk mantle ilowing irom her waist downwards , form the atliro of this half-northern , hulfaouthern Juno , by whom Obadiah Slope is entangled in an impure passion . The contrasts between them are excellently drawn : " Her hand in his looked like a rose among carrots , and when ho kissed it he looked as u cow might do on finding such a ilower among her food . " Madeline Neroni , however , is not the only idol of Obadiah , who worships also Eleanor Bold , daughter of the ex-warden , whom ho approaches leas reverentially , and who replies to him not with the language of Roman eyes , but with the palm of a matronly English hand . Without going further , or sketching the outline of Mr . Trollopo ' s story , we cannot but describe it as uncommonly graphic and clever ; it is a book to rouse the reader , and , if it does not charm him , lie will , xit all events , be cordially amused . Bcloto the Surface : a Story of English Countnj Life . , ' ) vols . ( Smith , Elder , and Co . )—The authorship of this novef has been announced as Sir Arthur Ilallam Elton ' s . In the absence of such information we should have unhesitatingly assigned it to the pen of a gentleman nearly conversant with the aspects of English country life , in the west especially , intimate with the
duties and weaknesses of rural magistrates , and other magnates , not prac-I tically familiar with literature as an art , but scholarly , accomplished , and j genial . We doubt not that the book will command very considerable | success , since it sprinkles more than one county with drops of satire , not j aimed at random , but directed against classes and institutions which may , without difficulty , be recognised . There is much to laugh at in English ¦ I country life , and we congratulate Sir Arthur Elton upon his courage . In the metropolis he is less successful ; he seems ill at ease within scent of the House of Commons ; but his social sketches have at least this advantagethat they do not shock us by their ignorant delineations of fashionable manners . ] f the cultivated world be not photographed in these volumes , it is not that the writer has been copying in the dark . Beloio the Surface is often incomplete , and , we think , unphilosophical , as a picture of modern English society , but it is never absurd ; it is full of refinement and vivacity . We * must protest , however , against the title , which is the most ambitious that could have been assumed . Below the Surface : why the name suggests an anatomy of the secret passions at work under the mask of the age ; a detection of social sins ; a laying bare of mysteries ; a large and profound analysis of human motives ; and an exposure of hypocrisy and pretence . The story does not realise this conception except in a very limited degree . It is almost purely local in its scope ; its chief characters are by no means typical of important classes in the community ; nor does the originality of the romance range far . We prefer to speak candidly of Sir Arthur Elton's first performance as a novelist , because it is a work of real merit ; if the pretence of its title-page be forgiven , it is particularly unassuming in tone , and , with all drawbacks , it is a book which the novel reader will not willingly lay down . The Sister of Charily ; or , From Berinondsey to Belgravia . By Mrs . Challice . 2 vols . ( Bentley . )—Mrs . Challice has written a novel with the best of motives to the worst of purposes . The tabular headings of her chapters read like the announcements on a provincial play-bill in the comic season . These are examples : — Squalid Streets . —Are you Really Virtuous ?—The Gate of a London Graveyard . — The Feverish Child . —Who knows the Fate of his Bones ?—Emblems of Death or Life . —Why be Buried alive in Bermondsey . The Misanthrope ' s Mansion . —Armour not from Wardour-street . —The Love of a Good Thing spoilt . —Aphrodite abdicated and Psyche pursued . —Face to Face with a Foe . Saturnine Seclusion . —Parson or Paragon?—The Glory , not the Thing " Isms . " — Clap-Trap . —Plant or Paramour . And so on . The story is one of woe and sympathy , beautiful deaths and heavenly sacrifices—all that Mrs . Challice delights in as romantic life and its sweet poison of passion and duty . We knew what to expect , however , when Eustace , the hero—who is reserved for great things—having saved the heroine ' s life , is introduced into the castle of her proud , world-hating father , after an icy interview with whom he is led through gloomy galleries to a place made lovely by sculpture , but divine by a presence in the centre , ' where , standing bathed in prismatic hues which fell with the sunbeams from the stained " glass above , was a living form , surpassing in interest any of the silent groups in the background . It was Beatrice Lester . ' We have shown the reader his way into the episode intended to lure him on , and if he proceeds he muy , or may not , find a tale to his liking . Nightshade : a Novel . By William Johnstone , M . A . ( Bentley . )—The title Nightshade is intended as a blister of sarcasm against the llomish Church . Mr . Johnstone , whose style is superior to his story , belongs to the phalanx in which such ladies as Catherine Sinclair clash Protestant spears against Protestant shields , and do battle with dreadful clamour . The Jesuit of the novel is a fiend , and nothing but his death will satisfy the retributive author . For has not De Vere , cloaked under the name of Kicci , forged a will , abducted two Protestant daughters , ensnared them in Italian convents , and performed other services in the cause of that faith which the lieverend Mr . Pike , with apostolic tenderness , designates as ' the curse of Christendom . ' The shadows of perverts enhance the darkness of the drama , but what is most horrible of all is , that one of the young ladies having been conducted to a nunnery , is there stripped , whipped , and otherwise most inelegantly treated , to punish her Protestant obstinacy . And Mr . Johnstone belfeves all the time that he fulfils a Christian duty in depicting this wrestle of consciences and systems . With more than the usual bitterness he has more than common capacity . Glenwoud Manor House : a Novel . By Esther Bakewell . ( Arthur Hall and Co . )—There is agreeable reading in Glenwood Manor House . It is a tale of old and new times . Miss Bakewell writes with grace , and invents a stirring story . Don Fiqucta de Los Monies : a Novel . By H . Jameson . ( EUingham Wilson . )— -Mr . Jameson constructs Spanish romance with a bold pen . We should say he is inexperienced , but he puts together a vivacious drama , the complexion of Avhieh may be imagined from the conclusion : — " 1 hasten—Iconic to desolate their plains , their villages , their cities ! Pillage , lire , and slaughter attend me ! 1 come!—1 come !" Then , bunding forward over tho precipice , and stretching out his arms in . a frantic manner , ho screamed forth—¦ " Tins Dkmon oallh mis to possession !—I iiahtisn !—I hastkn !—thus !—thus ! 1 KICIZK TIIIO WOULD !" Uttering these last wordy , he stepped upon air , lost his balance , and fell forward over tho precipice with strctohed-out arms ; and his body , dashing from rock to rock , plunged heavily into tho whirling pool below—¦ sank—arose—moved round with tho circling foam , tinged witli his blood ; then , being seized by tho current , was borne into the cavern gulf , und soon no more ! Such wab tiiib LAST MINUTE OK TI 1 K OAUBKR OV DON VlQUKTK I > K LOS MONTICS . Under the Lime Trees . By Caroline . Rickctts , Author of « Trials , or Life ' s Lessons . ' ( Booth . )—The arbitrary choice of umneaning titles is n spreading sin . We could think of many names for this - volume quite « a appropriate as « Under the Lime Trees . ' It might bo « Scaton Court , or . tales of tho Avenue , ' or » Living Lovo / or , if meant to bo descriptive , i < lve
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 23, 1857, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23051857/page/17/
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