The Press.
London, England, 1858-01-23 00:00:00

Adele. By Julia Kavanagh. Three Vols. London :

Hurst and Blackett.
Miss KAVANAGH'S present novel is distinguished by
the same elegance of style and thought, and general
literary skill, for which she has always been remark.
able. It is, on the whole, interesting, and as it con-
tains a greater amount of incident than any of her
previous works, it will doubtless find favour with the
circulating libraries. The " business "of the story,
however —by which wo mean those prosaic but indi4
pensable elucidations which serve to connect and
carry it on—is too roughly hurried over, and an
average reader would probably find some difficulty in
recollecting the details of the plot. A graver objec-
tion to the book is, that it is pervaded by the same
dreamy sentimentalism which was so prominent a
feature of "Nathalie," and which would make us
almost as unwilling to place Miss Kavanagh's novels
(except " Madeleine ") in the hands of a young lady
as the works of Rousseau. We do not mean to say
that there is in them the slightest approach to inde-
licacy either of thought or language, or that they
contain a single word which could not be read aloud
in the most prudish family : but the authoress's
conception of love seems to us a peculiarly morbid
and unhealthy one. In all her tales we find the
same kind of characters and situations—on one side
a hero, who, whether of the amiable or the ferocious
type, fascinates by a half-paternal, half. domineering
tenderness, and, in spite of his intellect and sensibi-
lity, is strangely unable to divine what sort of feel-
ings he has excited ; on the other a girl addicted to
day-dreams, and either obeying with reckless self-
indulgence the transient gusts of fancy, or fanning
with sighs of regret the lingering embers of a hope-
less passion. It is doing an injustice to human
nature to represent love under this uniformly ener-
vating and effeminate aspect. There is an applica-
tion to more than one sex in the welllnown lines
of Campbell :
Shame on the coward thought, that e'er betrayed
The noon of manhood to a myrtle shade
If Hope's creative spirit cannot raise
One trophy sacred to thy future days,
Spurn the dull crowd who haunt the gloomy shrine
Of hopeless Love to murmur and repine.
If we blame a writer who makes vice attractive, we
ought also to blame, if in a less degree, one who
makes moral weaknesses as fascinating as if they
were positive virtues • and the charm which Miss
Kavanagh has the skill to throw round her exhibi.
lions of ill-regulated passion and unstable impul-
siveness makes them doubly dangerous to that class
of readers by whom they are likely to be most
eagerly perused. Such at least is our general irn-
pre.:sion of her works, and if our readers are in
doubt, we think that a reference to "Daisy Burns"
or " Grace Lee " will convince them that the great
talents of the author have not hitherto been used
for the wisest of purposes.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.--JANum Is.
1300K9.

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Full Lessons in Geology. W. Adam. Motley
The Newspaper Press Directory and Advertiser's Guide.
Mitchell

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V illette. Currer Bell. Ditto
Sermons. 11ev. Thomas Iterchever Arnold, M.A.
Itivingtons
Historical Ballads, and Other Verses. l)oudnan
Hardwicke's Annual Biography fur 1837. Hardwicke
The Anniversaries, Poems, tc. Thomas 11. Gill.
Macmillan

Metropolitan and Provincial Law Association—French
Reading for Self.instruction. Wilson—The Empire of the
Middle Classes. Thacker—The Political Prospects of
British India. Hatehard-3ketches of India, Ancient and
Modern. J. W. Parker—The Impossibility of Admittiug
Jews into Parliament. Rivingtons—The Bank Act, What it
is, and What it Does. Wilson—A Few Words upon the
Indian Question. Smith and Elder.

London University Magazine.
Atlantic Monthly. Tmbuer.

Hall and Virtne—The