The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-28 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

At Odds. By the Baroness Tautphoeus. 2 vols.
Bentley,
The announcement of a new work by the author
of " the Initials " was pleasant news to the circulat-
ing libraries. The brilliant writings of th.
Baroness Tautphoeus have rendered her deservedly
popular in this country, and with an agreeable re-
membrance of " the Initials" in our minds, w.
opened "At Odds" with anticipations of pleasure.
We have found, as we could not fail to find in any
writings from that pen, a brilliancy of style rine
liveliness of description, with a group of varied
characters depicted with considerable spirit, but,
with the story itself, we must confess we are disap-
pointed. Our heroes and heroines are not only
"At Odds with each other throughout the two
volumes, but with the reader likewise. At least so,
we must confess, it has proved in our own instance.
We feel but little sympathy with some of the mail,
personages of the story, and we approve su little of
their line of action, that our iuteiest is not vividly
excited in their regard. The plot of the story is
sufficiently ingenious. It reminds one (although
the story is far less attractive than the picture) 01
Frank Stone's familiar delineation of " Cross Pur-
poses." Everyone is in love with the wrong person,
and "every think," as poor Mrs. Gumasidge says,
" goes cant 'wiry." It is quite impossible with such
impracticable materials to bring matters to e
satisfactory issue, and we must admit that
we could only feel a spiteful satisfaction,
when the scheming and hypocritical Mina hae
plunged to the bottom of the lake, and a bullet from
a French tifie had pierced the brow of the heartless
and despicable Sigmund. The latter misfortune
espeared to us almost " too good to be true," so in-
cense had been our a'ersion to the companionship
t)t Sigmund from the very first chapter of the firs:
volume. Despised as he is—a man without a par
ticle of feeling, good or bad—he nevertheless plays
such a consp,cuous part in the story that we are in-
cl;ned to thick his accidental death a mistake, but
it is a mistake that all readers will rejoice at. The
heroines are half-sisters, Doris O'More and Hilds
Waldering, the children of the Baroness Welder
tog. The latter, Hilda, is impetuous and wayward,
*lid not without cause. Doris is a pattern of femi-
nine perfection. All the heroes of the tale are it,
iove with err, Sigmund Waldering, his brother
Emmeran, Frank O'More, and Louis D'Esterre.
Hilda is beloved by no one. She has been for years
:he affianced bride of. her cousin S gmund, who
loves Doris (as much as he can love L.ny one), and
,he is for some years the nominal wife of Frank
O'More, who is devoted to his cousin Doris. Mine
Peilersberg, the daughter of the Steward of the
Walderings, loves Sigmund, or, we should say, she
oyes his rank and fortune, for it is impossible, as
Doris observes, for any one to love Sigmund for
aimself. By Mina's machinations the engagement
between Sigmund and Hilda is broken off, ano
Hilda is married to Fraek—Frank being already
engaged to his beloved Doris, who loves him, bu
who relinquishes him to her sister like the (we
cannot but think mistaken) heroine of Dickens's
" Battle of Life." Doris having become aware of
Hilda's affection for Frank, foolishly imagines she
can ensure her happiness by a compulsory in ,rriage
with a man who loves anot her ! Hinc laclarymce
Hilda and Frank are " At Odds" during a great
portion of the narrative. Sigmund, true to his
antecedents, finding it impossible to win Doris, ex-
cites Hilda's jealousy against her husband, in order
rd occasion the divorce of the " semi-attached"
couple, with the hope of renewing his own engag-
went with the heiress, Hilda, the loss of whose dowry
tie regrets: Such is a glimpse of the mazes of this
intricate story. It may be artful and ingenious, it
certainly is not natural or truthful. The scene is
laid in Bavaria and the Tyrol, durisg the wars of
Napoleon. The great captain is happily alluded to
in one chapter as the person who puts all tne world
"at odds." The Swiss patriot, Hofer, takes part
in the close of the narrative; and the misadven-
tures of Madame d'Applen are happily introduc-d.
['his lady who, we are informed in a note, was bs
birth a Tautphoeus, and consequently a relition of
the authoress, was arrested by tne Swags during ha '
travels in their country. On her boxes being
searched, thete were discovered sundry perfum
nottles and pacquets fresh from Paris, from the shop
of the celebrated parfumier, Letebore. The team.,
oeing identical with that of the French general,
the lady was at once imprisoned as an enemy !
Amoy of the scenes and incidents of the Tyrolese
war are described with spirit. M*dame Tautphoeus
has given us (she could not do otherwise) a clever
end remarkabie composition, but a very unsatietac
tory story.

Personal Narrative of Three Years' Service in
China. By Lieutenant-Colonel Fisher, C. 8.,
Roy al Engineers. Bentley.
A visit to China and a safe and pleasant introdue
'ion to the ways and customs of the Chinese, with•
oat any risk of being arrested on suspicion, or of
being incarcerated and perhaps executed for breach
of privilege and intrusion, this is valet Colonel
Fisher offers to his readers. The invitation is very
elluricig, and we will answer for it that all who
accept that invitation will have no cause fur disap-
pointment. The "three years" commence with the
capture of Canton in Decerneer, 1857, During the
next month, in January, 1858, the infamous vice
ray Yeh is taken prisoner, and Colonel Fisher
witnesses his embarkation for India on
board the (appropriately named) Inflexible
He looked," says Colonel Fisher,
fat and stolid, and, at the same time,
rather bewildered, like a man in a dream. He had
five or six attendants with him. Captain Hall
handed, or rather shoved him without much cere-
mony into one boat, making all the attendants get
into the other. Such was his exit from Canton: he
was brought back in his coffin. As he had been de-
graded by the emperor for his defeat, and political
failures, his body was not allowed to enter th,
I city ; but, after having been for a time depo-
' sited in a temple in the suburbs, it was pri-
vately interred by his relatives. If a man brought
up as he had been, and hardened by constant acts o'
cruelty, has the power of reflecting and feeling re
riorse for his deeds, what must have been his feel
ings during the months of his captivity—living a
life utterly inactive, and totally without excite-
ment to distract him ! So ended the career
of a man who probably in the season of hi
power took in cold blood the lives of more
fellow-creatures than any one of modern times."
After following our expedition up the- Pa ho, we
return to Canton. At first every ihing Chine,te ip
not only new and surprising to the reader but to
the writer of the narrative; but by Septemb-r,
Colonel Fisher admits, that, having ueen nine
months in China, he began to take thing-
much as a matter of course. " But," he adds,
" For those who were fortunate enough to m,kt
the acquaintance of poor Albert Smith, who came
up at that time, anew lease of enjoyment, and ap •
preciation of all the strange sights around, way
entered upon. What a pleasure it was to walk
In the streets with him! He had ett:h a keen
sense of the ludicrous. He appeared to possess
n unerring instinct which guided him to what-
ever was most strange and worthy of observation.
All the sights were novel to him, as they had but a
few months before been to us. He was particularly
amused with the poulterers' and butchers' shops,
where hung, stretched out in the most whimsical
forms oi fantastic agony, the dried ducks and rats,
a,,d the wonderful pigs' faces, not split into
two pre files as with us, but flittened out so as
to be perfectly round and disgustingly human."
A little later on we find an interesting
description of the groat wall of China.
" The Great Wall itself is just like that of Canton,
or any other Chinese fortified city. It is from
twenty five to forty feet high, and from fifteen to
thirty feet wide at the top; its rear face is vertical
or nearly so. The core of the rampart is filled up
with earth, much of which has evidently been ex
cavated from the front, so as to form a ditch,
which, however, is not maintained as such, in a de-
fensive point of view. 'Tae mwerial of which th,
wall is constructed is brick and stone, many of tht
former being very large, and of a blue colour; there
is a battlemented parapet on the top, and loopholes
are pierced in places between the openings. There

" yen

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ire, as I said before, picketing square towers at
intervals, surmounted by pagodas for purposes of
flank defence. Access to the top of the wall
from the inside is gained by steps or ramps."
Sa multitudinous are the subjects dwelt upon
or introduced with this very comprehensive
volume, that we transcribe, as a matter of
curiosity, a resume of part only of the contents :--
" Character, habits, and customs : idols, education,
music, fire-brigade, police, beggars, religion, imita-
tive nature, bronzas, character, epistles, diet, cis-
terns, signs, charms, money, sobriety, inventions,
caligraphy, manure, pawnshops, labour, cabbage-
planting, industry, ideas of fortification, umbrellas,
hats, rice cultivation, language, dialects, similarity
to the Russian, peculiarities, jealousy of foreigners,
primitive modes of communication, soldiers' dress,
modes of travel, ditches, coffins, gambling, personal
appearance of the women, fatalism, labour for
minute results, military works, and suicide."
Maps and sketches eocroase the value of a work
that will be found to afford not only a store of very
useful information, but a pleasant series of very
de&ightful reading.