The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-04 00:00:00

LITERATURE,

Stella. By Mrs. Bennett, author of the " Cottage
Girl," &c. Three Vols. J. Maxwell and Co.
Encouraged by the success of the "sensational"
novels, some of our fiction writers are now adven-
turing upon an arduous and necessarily most futile
endeavour, namely, the union of the antagonistic
elements of truth and falsehood—the probable and
the impossible. The medley, like all such combina-
tions, possesses the attractions neither of the one
class nor of the other, while, by an unhappy fatality,
the faults of both are glaringly visible. It is a pan-
tomime by daylight—the trickery all apparent and
the illusion gone. When we read a fairy tale or a
melo-dramatic romance, we are content for the
time being to yield ourselves up to the empire
of the imagination, but, then, our imagi-
nation must be satisfied. We must have no
half measures. Mrs. Bennett has done herself great
injustice in the production of the novel now before
us. She possesses considerable skill in the con-
struction of a story, and some of her characters are
original and vigorous. In an unhappy attempt,
however, to achieve too much, she has involved her
plot, and rendered it improbable beyond the belief
of the most eredul•Jus ; while her characters, fet-
te_•ed by the unnatural situations in which they
find themselves, become unreal, and consequently
uninteresting. The opening scene induced us to
form more favourable expectations of the narrative
that wQs to follow.

THE CRISIS OP A DESTINY.
The storm was over, but still the surging billows con-
tinued to dash heavily on the rocky shore.
Norman Pascal—a handsome, but somewhat dissipated-
looking young man, who was articled to an attorney in the
market-town of Trevethan, on the Cornish coast—had
strayed down to the beach, to see the wreck that lay at a
short distance from the town, the sea washing over the
decks and rigging, where for hours a few poor fellows had
been clinging for dear life, until one by one they sank into
the deep.

Norman walked on and on, under the lofty, rugged,
granite cliffs, until he came to a small strip of sand hidden
between rocks. Coming suddenly upon this, he was startled
by the sight of a human body, lying half on the sands and
half under water.
It had evidently been washed from the wreck. It ap-
peared to be the corpse of an old man, with white hair, and
large, hard, knotty hands, as if used to severe toil. The
jacket was rough and coarse—a common seaman's jacket—
and a pocket in it visibly bulged out.
Norman stood some time gazing on the sad spectacle ;
then all at once a thought struck him. He went near to
the body, and examined the bulging pocket, taking from it
a heavy pocket-book.
Hark ; was that a voice near ? No. Norman looked on
every side, but no one could he see observing his actions ;
so, after a bad and agitated pause, he thrust the book into
his own pocket, and then stood hesitating what it was best
to do with the dead man.
"He might be recognised and there might be inquiries,"
Norman reflected. " It is evening; I will come back here
when it is quite dark, and make a grave in the sand. What
matter is it f The man is dead, and I can do him no injury."
So, on the impulse of the moment, Norman acted.
It was with him in all the transactions of his life ; he fol-
lowed the blind leading of his hasty passions, whichever
way they tended, whether to good or to evil.
Norman Pascal thus, according to the adage of
'falleyrand, commits worse " than a crime—a mis-
take." The credulity of the reader is somewhat taxed
by the subsequent revelation that the drowned
man is Norman's own uncle Mark Layton returning
from Australia to enrich his relatives. When we
have become reconciled to this idea, Mark Layton
in proprii i persona is rescued from the waves, and
the dead man appears to be John Trellick, the friend
and companion of Mark, who is returning also with
another fortune in his pocket. After Mark Layton
has, for some secret reason, assumed the name of
his lost companion, and after the dead body has
been twice buried and disinterred and then cast by
Norman into the deep waters; lo and behold the old
farmer, John Trellick, makes his appearance as
a deaf spectacled Professor who has been all
the time secretly keeping watch upon every-
body, and the dead body for the third
transformation turns out to be an unknown " skip-
per" opportunely cast uglier() at the right moment.
The body discovered by Norman, and supposed to
be that of Mark Layton, having nevertheless been
the half-drowned John Treliick, with Mark Ley ton's
pocket-book containing many thousands in one
pocket, and his own fortune of many other thousands
concealed in a tobacco-box in another ! After Nor-
elan had purloined the pocket-book, another robber
ook possession of the tobacco-box, and then the
good genius of the story, Albert Crewe, arrived with
his yachtsmen and carried off poor john, and restored
him to life. Meanwhile Norman returns with a
spade to dig a grave for his uncle Mark, alias John
Trellick, and wonderful to relate, finds in lieu of the
resuscitated John, the newly arrived body of the
skipper, cast ashore at the right moment,
in the identical spot where he had left
the other body ! Norman consequently inters
this corpse, believing it to be the one
he had plundered. May we not safely aver that
Mrs. Bennett taxes our credulity overmuch ?
Again, in her endeavour to blend the amazing with
the possible, our authoress intrcduces us to a
group 'of spiritual mediums. When Norman is

hastening to London with his ill-gotten wealth, he
encounters in the railway carriage a Mr. St. Aubyn
who is represented as wholly a knave and partially
a visionary, and who in that double capacity easily
contrives to plunder and mystify the bewildered
and conscience-stricken Norman. Enough, how-
ever, •f the details of this very extravagant plot.
We must mention, however, that it introduces tons
a young melodramatic Baron, Erneat of Dern-
cleugh, who is driven mad by a cruel stepfather,
and Valeria de Romani, the romantic and " queenly"
medium, and her passionate black slave Dinah,
who claims to be her own sister. -We have said
nothing of the heroine Stella—she, in fact, plays a
very secondary part in her own history, the real
heroine being, after all, Rose Treilick, the farmer's
daughter, for a time the companion of the Medium
Valeria. In one chapter where Rose, under the
influence of a trance, is spell-bound, and compelled
to follow and obey St. Aubyn, the writer, has
unintentionally, perhaps, introduced a very similar
incident to that which befell Lilian, in " The
Strange Story" of Sic Bulwer Lytton. Mrs.
Bennett does not profess to be a believer in the
mysteries of the spirit• world. In fact she betrays
many of the secret contrivances of Valeria and
St. Aubyn, Nevertheless Rose is spirited away,
as we have said, and many other impossible won-
ders are introduced in the course of this novel.
Had the authoress attempted a less elaborate and less
complicated composition she woald, undoubtedly,
have achieved a greater success than " Stella" can
lay claim to.

Dalzi.l's Illustrated Arabian Nights.
Dalziel's Illustrated Vicar of Wakefield.
Which of these two splendidly embellished editions
to admire the most we know not. They have more
than sustained the great promise with which they
commenced. The " Vicar"—only, as yet, in his
second number, and illustrated solely by the pencil
of G. J. Fin well—reflects the highest credit upon
the artist, to whose vivid fancy and skillful hand
the delineation of the scenes recounted by dear
O'iver Goldsmith has been most judiciously en-
trusted. Here, do we not see poor, simple young
Moses ambling along on the colt, with the deal box
before him, prudently prepared for the family grog
series ? Here, have we not vividly depicted the
detection of Mr. Burchell's villainy ? FinaUy, and
by no means as the least meritorious among the
particular engravings referred to, have we
not a capital limning of the good Vicar and his
womankind, musing wistfully over Moses' bargain
of the spectacles in the chagreen cases ? As for the
Arabian Nights, not one clever artist alone has been
engaged thereon, but several gifted artists therein
vie with each other in the work's embellishment.
Yonder is Sindbad making a saddle for the king—
yonder is Sindbad braining the Oid Man of the Sea.
Here he sleeps on the raft—here he is freed from
the elephants. Now we behold the Fisherman
drawing his net—now the black man stealing the
apple. When completed, the two volumes will each
of them deserve resplendent treatment at the hands
of the bookbinder.

Curiosities'of Savage Life. By James Greenwood,
Author of " Wild Sports of the World." Two

Vols. First and Second Series. S. 0. Beaton.—
specimens of Mr. Beeton's very effective illustrated
These two exceedingly handsome volumes are
happy editions of popular works. The " Curiosities
of Savage Life" are adorned with innumerable
woodcuts and designs by Mr. Harden Melville,
and are, moreover, embellished with a variety of
brilliantly-coloured pictures from water-colour
drawings, by Messrs. Keyl and Huttula. The
letter-press narrative gives a glimpse of the native
savage from his cradle to his grave. We behold
the Samoan baby, with its cap of stones compress-
ing its cranium to the dezired beauty of a Flathead ;
and we witness theilast dismal rites attending the in-
terment of a DAhomean king, accompanied to the
grave by a troop of willing living victims. Of
course the majority of the manners and customs
described in these volumes have already, in some
form or other, appeared before the European public;
but the various records of savage life are here
grouped together in a very skilful and interesting
manner. A variety of anecdotes and adventures,
illustrative of native life, are opportunely intro-
duced, together with many Indian tales and
legends.

•
ttrair t ilefe itaittrbr
:1,

HER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, April 2.
The Queen walked and drove in the grounds this
morning, attended by Lady Augusta Stanley.
Prince Leopold took a carriage drive.

April 3.

The Bishop of Worcester and Sir Charles and
Lady Mary Wood arrived at the Castle yesterday.
Sir Charles and Lady Mary Wood had the hon-
our of dining with the Queen, the King of the Bel-
gians, and the royal family.
Her Royal Highness Princess Helena, attended
by Lady Caroline Barrington and Major• General
Seymour, went to London yesterday and honoured
the performance at Covent Garden Theatre with her
presence.

The Qaeen, the King of the Belgians, Princess
Helena, Princess Louise, Prince Leopold, Princess
Beatrice, and the Ladies and Gentlemen in Waiting,
attended Divine service this morning in the private
chapel. The Bishop of Worcester preached the
sermon.

HER MAJESTY has passed through the principal
streets of Windsor this week in an open carriage for the
first time since her bereavement. A marked change in the
style of her Majesty's costume was noticeable.—Court
Journal.

THE KING QF THE BELGIANS, according to the
Court Journal, will shortly leave Windsor Castle for
Buckingham Palace, where his Majesty will remain until
his departure for Belgium.

His Excellency the Belgian Minister and
Madame Van de Weyer will return to the Belgian Legation
in Grosvenor-square either to day or to-morrow, from their
seat near Windsor.

Prince Theodore of Tours and Taxis has arrived
at Ciaridge's Hotel from Germany.
The Duke of St. Albans arrived in town on Sa-
turday evening from visiting the Duke and Duchess of
Remburghe, at Floors Castle, near Kelso.
Cardinal Wiseman has very courteously agreed
to deliver an oration on Shakspere early in June, for the
benefit of the Monument Fund.

The Duchess of Somerset and Lady Gwondolin
St. Maur, together with Lord Edward St. Maur and Lad,'
Ulrica Thynne, intend to prolong their sojourn in Faris
till the 13th inst.