The Press.
London, England, 1857-11-14 00:00:00

'I'HE PRESS, NOVEMBER 14,1857.

Thackeray. But we cannot affect to regret
that condition of literature in which it is pos-
sible for such books to be in the second class.
Having prefaced thus much, that our criticisms
may not be misunderstood, we shall proceed
to offer a brief account of the volumes before
us. Of the first three, the merits, though dis-
similar, are nearly equal.

1. " Mauleverer's Divorce" affects to be a
narrative of real events, and professes to ex-
pose the injustice and oppression to which
women are, or rather were, subjected by the
marriage law of England. As we do not take
the same interest in divorce cases that Lord
Brougham does, we cannot inform our readers
which of the many late domestic exposures is
here exposed over again, or whether the as-
sumption of reality be not altogether a trick.
We do not, however, think that it is. The
introduction is written in a tone of feeling
which if feigned is, to say the least of it, in
exceedingly bad taste, but which it genuine
will probably not be without some of the
effect which the authoress seems to anticipate.
This actuality is well sustained throughout
the entire tale. Either it is substantially true
or narrated with consummate art, the effect
of which is heightened rather than diminished
by the truly womanish absurdities into
which the authoress hurries herself. It is
very improbable that a divorce a mensa et thoro
would be refused on the grounds here stated
to have been fatal to Mrs. Luxmoor. There
was no condoning of her husband's outrage
on the schoolgirls; and this, in connection
with his cruelty, would have been amply suffi-
cient grounds. Nor is it much more credible,
on the other hand, that a divorce a vinculo ma-
trimonii should have been granted with such'ease
and rapidity as Lord Mauleverer's. But, then,
to represent a woman imagining that judge
and counsel were all prejudiced against her be-
cause they were men, and interested therefore
in upholding the supremacy of their sex, is a
genuine touch of human nature, and excites
our admiration as heartily as the alleged
animus our laughter. Barring legal tech-
nicalities, the book is really written with
great power. It is blemished, in our opinion,
by the existence of a double plot; but each is
very cleverly worked out, and our interest
stimulated to the last. The incidents arc
perhaps not original. The heroine, daughter and
heiress of a proud old Tory lord, and meek
oppressed lady of the true conventional stamp,
runs away from her paternal castle to escape
the tyranny of a French governess. As she
wanders in the woods she meets with an im-
poverished descendant of Caractacus, in the
person of an Eton schoolboy—a Sir Vivian
_gyp Howel—whose father had been cheated
out of his estates by a wealthy manufacturer
delighting in the euphonious surname of Suet,
and who had built a large house on the pro-
perty. Old Suet, however—John Thomas are
his other names—has been left guardian of
the young Welehman, and it is to his guar-
dian's house that her newfound champion
escorts her. She there meets a Miss Sophia
Sutcliffe, an old friend, in the capacity of
governess, and agrees, for various reasons, to
pass herself off as her sister. The fair Sophia,
it turns out, all the while is the wife of Mr.
Luxmoor, the tutor of young Mr. Suet, and for
reasons of her own exerts herself to effect a
marriage between his pupil and her supposed
sister. This is effected without much diffi-
culty. The heroine's father is of course
furious, but is ultimately reconciled. The
Luxmoors settle down on a fat Welch living
close by the castle. And now comes the
cardinal event of the story—Sophia's separa-
tion from her husband, and ineffectual attempt
at a divorce. These events lead to an intimacy
between the heroine's husband, now created
Lord Mauleverer, and Mrs. Luxmoor, to the
progress of which our interest is now confined.
to trace the fortunes of Sophia up to the close
of the book, or narrate her wiles in detail,
would be tedious. Suffice it to say she
commits adultery with Lord Mauleverer, on
purpose to obtain a divorce from her own
husband, and imputes it to Lady Mauleverer,
in order to separate her from hers. She is
successful, and the book ends. This story is
undeniably interesting: the language is fervid,
but not too much so fox the subject; and the