The Press.
London, England, 1854-09-16 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

reality, and to a cbrtain extent she has succeeded.
Her characters have a strong mechanical resemblance
to human beings ; their talk, also, is very natural ;
and many of the scenes described are photographs
from the commonplaces of existence. But to copy
is not to create, and characters cannot be vivified by
merely cataloguing their qualities. Mrs. Maillard
has sense, and some constructive skill, and she has a
good theoretical knowledge of the world, but she
wants that subtle insight into the complexities of the
heart indispensable to a novelist who would rivet the
attention. With increased practice as a novelist, her
views have acquired more breadth and boldness.
Her portraits are often elaborated with care. Here
is a picture of an old maid, from the original of
which we should certainly be disposed to recoil :

" Reader! Have you ever met with a young woman
who, despite her youth, bore that stamp upon her which
involuntarily makes you feel that she was cut out for an
old plaid in Natpre's studio of statuary ?—cut out in cold
grey granite, rigid and heart-chilling to look-upon—whose
'clothes seem swathed round this chiselled block of stone
like the bandages of an Egyptian mummy, out of which
enfohling drop long, pale, Linn hands, with nails of scrupu-
lous exactness in length? Toes first are seen propelling
forward this sad body without the slightest undulation of
figure, it seems this same granite statue on a truck ; then
uprises the long, meagre neck, crowned by the cold, unwel-
coming face, from which every passion and feeling fly,
whether of love, sympathy, or kindliness ; the face is a
frozen surface, from which they would glide into the cold
waters of oblivion for evermore Such a being was
Angelina : not a tinge of colour ever crossed her cheek, no
one had ever seen her smile except in scorn or derision,
and then the cold blue lips, shrunken end thin, parted,
and the face made a wrinkled grimace ; the eyes were of a
cold, unchanging greenish-grey; the hair, what colour
could it be but white? There seemed no blood in that
frame to colour it deeper; it was a cold, sickly flaxen,
without the slightest gloss, and this hung in long, lank
curls down either side of her cheek—she conceived it
beneath the dignity of her great acquirements to study or
care for appearance ; yet in this too there was conceit.
She looked in her glass, and thought that her pale, studious
countenance Faust win some kindred soul ; she fancied her
statue-like appearance in accordance with her classical
mind. Angelina never for an instant dreamed that any
one could do other than admire, though they might dread
and shun, her superiority!"

The Village Millionaire. By Miss Lamont. London
Hurst and Blackett.

THE first work of this authoress gave indications of
talent, and we expected that in her new attempt she
would have displayed more skill than is exhibited in
0 The Village Millionaire." The composition is hur-
ried, and the story is awkwardly put together. The
matter, also, is too conventional, and there is a want
of freshness in the characters. Yet there are cle-
verly-written passages, in which Miss Lamont shows
reflective power and skill in using knowledge ac
quired from hooks. In the first volume we are in-
troduced to the young adventurer turning his back
on his native village, as he proceeds to seek his for-
tune in the world. In order to produce new effects,
the authoress attempts to paint Anglo-Indian life,
and takes us to Calcutta and to campaigns in the
East, wherein she soon shows that a feminine pen
is not equal to scenes of strife and passion. Discus-
sions upon the right of the English to India are out
of place in fiction, and the last hundred pages of
"The Village Millionaire" are quite unlike the end
of a novel. The talents of the authoress appear to
be better suited for biography or essay writing than
for works of invention.

Church Furniture and Decoration. By the Rev.
E. L. Cutts. London : John Crockford.
THE reverend author displays great research and
antiquarian knowledge in this manual of church
furniture and decoration, and he arranges his mate-
rials with taste and discrimination. The book is at
least a valuable compilation, and although the
matter has already appeared in the pages of the
Clerical Journal, yet in its present compact
form it will no doubt be better appreciated by all
admirers of mediiaval church antiquities. The
volume is illustrated with numerous woodcuts and
coloured plates.