The Express.
London, England, 1859-05-14 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, MAY 14, 1859.

LITBRATUIiZ

Lore me Little, Lore me Long. By CKAILLIS
REAMS, author of "It is Never too Late to Mead,"
" White Liss," &a. In two volumes. Tztibner
and Co.

The main defect of the new tale Love me Lidt4
Lore me Long is, that while the leading
characters, though little more than sketcher,
i are excellent, it has scarcely any story at all. These
are a few incidents, one of which, the boat excursion,
is effective, but there is little plan, and nothing that
can be called plot in the narrative. This the author
virtually confesses in • long but rather enigmatical
preface. " Should thee, characters," says Us,
Bmde, "embedded in complete incidents, interest
the public at all, they will probably reappear is
more potent scenes. This design, which I may never
live to execute, is, I fear, the only excuse I can at
present offer for some fifty pages at the conclusion
of my first volume." After this apology it may
perhaps seem harsh to complain of these fifty pages,
devoted to Mr. Hardy, one of the secondery characters
of the story. But though the episode is in itself inte-
resting and elaborated with great care, it is alto-
gether out of place, and ought to have been
omitted, as it is it raises expectations which are
destined to be disappointed, and contains a promise
of mystery and terror which is not in the least ful-
filled. The author, in introducing Mr. Hardy, says
expressly that "he exercised a terrible influence
over the life of Lucy Fountain (the heroine), as you
will hear by-and-by r adding that this alone
would make it proper to lay hie antecedents before the
reader." But in reality as you read on you find that
the terrible person thus mysteriously announced is only
of very. secondary importance, and exerts scarcely
any serious influence over the heroine at all. Indeed
be gives no trace in the story itself of that resolute
and incisive intellect displayed in the episode. He
is just the kind of character we naturally expect to
reappear in " more potent scenes ;" but in these
volumes his reappearance is of a very ordinary and
harmless kind. The main personages of the story
are well grouped, and their characters brought out
with true dramatic aublety and skill. The heroine,
Lucy Fountain, is an orphan, left, at an early age, to
the care of two trustees—an uncle, Edward Forster,
Esq., of Fort Abbey, and an aunt, Mrs. Beralgette,
wits of a merchant in a thriving manufacturing town.
Lacy is amiable and aelf-saccificing, while ber guar-
dians are both thoroughly selfish in their own dif-
ferent ways. Lucy devoting herself to each in tarn,
and always being of immense use wherever she is,
both are naturally anxious to secure her permanently,
and each for this purpose determines to find a husband
for her. A pair of candidates for Lucy's hand ea-
, cordingly appear on the scene, Mr. Tatham her
uncle's choice, being the representative of land
and blood, Mr. Hardie, the aunt's protege,
the representative of brains and Bank stock.
Between the claims of these rival lovers,
for neither of whom she has any decided pre-
fereuoe, but both pressed upon her directly and
indirectly she has rather a perplexing, and in the
end very painful, time of it. The hero, who deliver
her out of the hands of her peresentors, is David
Dodd, a brave, generous, sad noble-minded young
sailor, whom she admires from their first interview,
but, being below her in social position, she cannot for
• long time be persuaded to accept him as a lover.
We hear nothing of David till he introduces him-
self in the following dialogue:
Dimer-Hove, end by oomerinenoe tea-time, come earlier it
these &ye. 8o &bent eight o clock a tall square shouldered
ymeg fallow was walkng in the moonlight towards Pont
Abbey; Eve holding his head and tripping by his side, and
lecturing him on deportment very gravely, while dancing
rotted him and pulling him all manner at ways, like your
solid tune with your umbellate moompenamat, a combina-
tion sow in vogue. All oda sudden, withoot your leave, or
by your leave, the said David c night this light fantastic
e6f sot up in his arms and cervied it talons shoulder.
On this she gave one hale squeak, then, witlrut a mo-
ment's interval, coutlaued her to as if nothing had hap-
the looked down train leer perch like a hen from a
ladder, and laid down the law to David with seriousness and

t* Wed •
Wed last pines le remember that they are people • long
way shove us, at best above what we ere now since father
he into trouble, so don't you make bookie; and Kiss Pom-
ba& is the finest of all the Sae ladies la the meaty."
."rem lee sorry we are going."
"No, yen ere not ; she is • beautiful girl."
"The sheen the ems."
"No, it does neC don't chatters% David, interrupting for
emir, but lists% sad mind what I gay, ce I'll never take
ye?anywhere apts."
Are you see you are taking me now ?" asked David
ly
"Why not, Mr. David r. retorted Eve from his shoulder.
"Didn't I her yea tell bow you took the Combentare out
of harbour, and bow you brought her Into port; she didn't
take you out sad bring you home, eh?"
" Had me there though."
"Yes, end what is more you ere not skipper of the Cora-
hennas yet ; sad sever will be ; but I am skipper of you."
" Ashore; net e doubt of It," said David, with cud in-
digester He despised terrestrial dietinctlon; courting only
such sewn merles.
" Then I oommaad yea to let me down this instant ; do
you hearb crew."
" No; objected David; "If I put you overboard you can't
command the vessel, sad ten to one if the craft does not
header fw want of asemenanship on the quarterdeck.
However," added be la a minting tam, "welt till we get
to that paddle shintag ea ahead, sad there I'll disemluuk
pm"
"No, David, do let me down, that's a good soul—l
Ind,"
am
"Tired I Waof whar.ds& peevishly.
" Of doles toothiest, stupid—there let roe down, dear
won't you, dotting P then take that, love." (A box of
the ear
" Well, I've got it," said David drily.
"Keep it, then, till the next. No he won't let me down—
now be hes got both my hands in one of him paws, and be
will carry me every foot of the way now; I know the ob-
stinate pig."
"We have all our little characters, Eve. Well, I ham
got your wrists,bat you have got your toupee, sod that la
the stronger weapon of the two, you know, and you are m
the poop, so give your orders end the ship shall he worked
ersordingly —likewise I will enter all your remarks on good
breeding into my
Here, unluckily, David tapped his forehead to signify that
the log in mestere was a zootaphorkal one, the log of
. Eve bad him again directly. She freed a cam.
memoryo,tis is
.your log, is it" cried she, tapping It se hard ea
she could; ' well, It don sound like wood of some sort,
Well them, David. deer—you wretch, I mean—promise me
not to laugh loud."
" Wed, I will not; it le odds if I lamb at ell. I wisher*
were to moor alongside, mother, intleed of running into this
Menage port,"
" Stud! think of Mime Fountain's figure-bead—nor tell
too many stories—md above all, for heaven's sake, do keep
the poor dear old sea out of sight f T once."
" Ay, ay : that stands to reason."
Bane of his stories are given in outline, and show
to considerable advantage Mr. Reade's power of
condensed narrative, of vivid, picturesque, and power-
ful description. Here, for example, is a sketch of a
whaling adventure:
Then David painted the furious race alter the whale, sad
"how the boat gradually gained, and how at lest, r he was
grinding his teeth and; polling like mad, he heard a sewed
a-heed like a bemired shphante wallowing. And now be
hoped to me the berpooser have his oar and rice sad nag
his rapes; bat that moment, up dukes., a tower of flak woe
ear a sonar la Os els with a mil fin at the top of it, 'jot
about the sloe of this room we are sittiog in I tdies,' and
down the whale smadei ; the. It wu pall en spin in her
wake, socordiag se she beaded in ; pull gar the
dem life: ant stew a while the wawa saw the stemenam's
eyes prying over the sea WS like bet coals ; the we.
fire at this end pat their very backbones into each
sad the bias skimmed end dew ; suddenly the Manes
Mat oat fiercely, Stead up harpeou ng lose the bar.
posse,, kis eye like a hot °miaow. The men saw swab( •
they must pall fiercer tliani ever. The harpooner belanesj
his boa swayed his body lightly, and the harpoon Mewed
from hiSt. A soft thud—then a heaving of the water ell
ramil, a slap that sounded like a March tower ~at
spas an sore of boards, and drenched and tilied,d and keel-
wmothered us all In spray, sad at the same moment away
whirled the boat dentin aid kicking in the whale's isaagag
babbling wake, and we holdiag on, like gels death, by lir
thwarts, not to be span out int ) the sea."
"Delightful!" died Vim Founts* " the wavestansulai
breath you like a steed that knows Its rider—pay ersa•
tutus."
" Tea, Nino Yountain, now, of elm* yea eft ale that if
the line ran eat too esay the whale would leave as seem
altegelber, and that If it Jammed or ran tee bard, eke wield
low r vadat water."
"Of seem we sea," mid Eve, basically, " ere madarstentl
wzrda r...t boa, nem& tioas Ira s

" Than I won't explain how ft It, or why It le, but I'll
just let you know that two ar arse hundred fathom of line
are pared round and round the boat from stem to *tarn and
back, and carried In Ned out between tho airmen as they sit.
Wen, it was ell new to sae thsia ; bat when the boat began
Ittg and rocking and tbs lime Logan whining in sad
out and screaming and smoking like Haire now, fancy a
maokins, a oompliatsd or, math of poisonous serpents, the
steam oil, and you sitting in the mildly of the works with not
an inch to spar*, on the °rankest rocklngtet, juropiagest,
bomplageot, rollingest male that ever—"
" David I" said Kos, solemnly.
" Hallo I" sang out David.
!'.D901"

" *ire, do I" cried Lucy, slightly clasping her hands.
If this little black ugly lino was to coach you, it would
epic you out of the boat like a shuttlecock ; if it held you, it
would cut you in two ; or hang you to death and drown you
all stone time . and if it got jammed against anything alive
as OW that could stand the strain, It would take the beat
mod crew down to the coral before you could wink twice."
" Oh dear," said Lucy, " than I don't think I like It
now; it is too terrible—pray go on, Mr.—Mr.—"
Well, Kim Fount whom
" a novice b sae ke saw this
black serpent twisting twirling, and smokiee and hissing
in and out among us, I remembered the 'dipper's words, and
I bridal Jack it was he had laid the lino ; he was in the
bow.

---;'•Jack," said I. " mid he. " For God's sake
are there any hitches In the line t" rid I.
" Not as I knows on," says he, owielk ender then you lit
Mae, and that Is a sailor all over. Wall, skes towed us
about a wile and then she was blown, end we hauled up OS
th• Iles and cab up with her wed drove know into her, till
she spouted blood instead of salt water, sad west Into her
Awry end rolled anddeoly over our way, deed, and was
within a foot of smashing to to atoms •; but it she had it
would only have been an accident, for she was past
than we took posesesion, planted our flagstaff in
qtr hole, you knew, end polka back to the ship,
aud=t; down and anchored to flu whale, and then for
the first Mae I saw the blubber stripped off a whale and
belated by tackles into the ship's hold, which is aa curious
es any part of the bashoese but a dirtytah job and not at for
the resent cowpony, sad I dare say that is enough about
whales."
Other narratives are very tempting, but we must be
content to stop here, recommending our readers to
the book itself for some finer passages, both of
dialogue and description, than can wily be
matched in even the best works of modern fiction.
Mr. Reade's st7le is in general admirable, clear, terse,
condensed, and vivid. He rarely uses a superfluous
word, and in these days of careless writing it is a
kind of virtue so rare that it deserves especial
notice. He has, however, peculiarities both of gram-
mar and spelling that we confess we do not understand,
but which nevertheless we excessively dislike. Why
in the world will he writs such words as kindneui
and goodness with a hyphen between the two syl-
lables ? These eccentricities apart, the style through-
out is excellent, and the story very interesting. We
shall be glad to welcome the promised continuation.

MUSIC