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 the
Baroness Tautphoeus have rendered her deservedly
popular in this country, and with an agreeable re-
membrance of "the Initials" in our minds, we
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 and
liveliness of description, with a group of varied
characters depicted with considerable spirit, but,
with th 3 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 main
personages of the story, and we approve so little of
their line of action, that our interest is not vividly
excited in their regard. The plot of the story ie
sufficiently ingenious. It reminds one (al+ hough
the story is far less attractive than the picture) of
Frank Stone's familiar delineation of " Cross Pur-
poses." Everyone is in love with the wrong person,
and "every think," as poor Mrs. Gumtnioge says,
" goes contrairy." It is quite impossible with such
impracticable materials to bring matters to a
satisfactory issue, and we must admit that
we could only feel a spiteful satisfaction
when the scheming and hypocritical Mina had
plunged to the bottom of the lake, and a bullet from
a French 'Hie had pierced the brow of the heartless
and despicable Sigmund. The latter mis'ortune
appeared to us almost " too good to be true," so in-
tense had been our aversion to the companionship
of Sigmund from the very first chapter of the first
volume. Despised as he is—a man without a par-
ticle of feeling, good or bad—he nevertheless plays
such a conspicuous part in the story that we are in-
clined to think his accidental death a mistake, but
it is a mistake that all readers will rejoice at. Toe
heroines are half-sisters, Doris O'More and Hilda
Waldering, the children of the Baroness Welder-
ing. The latter, Hilda, is impetuous and wayward,
and not without cause. Doris is a pattern of fetni-
' nine perfection. All the heroes of the tale are in
love with her, Sigmund Waldering, his brother
Emmeran, Frank O'More, and Louis D'Esterre.
Hilda is beloved by no one. She has been for years
the affianced bride of her cousin S gmund, who
fovea Doris (as much as be can love .tiy out), and
,he is for some years tha nominal wife of Frank
O'More, who is devoted to his cousin Doris. Mina
Peilersberg, the daughter of the Steward of the
Walderings, loves Sigm and, or, we should sly, she
'oyes his rank and fortune, for it is impossible, as
Doris observes, for any one to love Sigmund for
himself. By Mina's machinations the engagement
between Sigmund and Hilda is broken off, and
Hilda is married to Frank--Frank being already
engaged to his beloved Doris, who loves turn, he.
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 laves another ! Hinc ilia lachryme
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
to occasion the divorce of the " semi-attached"
couple, with the hope of renewing his own engag-
meat with the heiress Hilda, the loss of whose dowry
he 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, during the wars of
N,poleon. The great captain is happily alluded to
La one chapter as the person who puts all the world
at odds." The Swiss patriot, Refer, takes part
in the close of the narrative; and the mieadven-
tures of Madame d'Applen are happily introduced.
This lady who, we are informed in a note, was by
birth a Tautphoeus, and consequently a relation of
the authoress, was arrested by tne Swiss during her
travels in their country. On her boxes being
searched, there were discovered sundry perfume
bottles and pacquets fresh from Paris, from the shop
of the celebrated perfumer, Lefebore. The tame
neing identical with that of the French general,
the lady was at once imprisoned as an enemy !
Many of the scenes and incidents of the Tyrolese
war are described with spirit. Madame Tautphoeus
has given us (she could not do otherwise) a clever
end remarkable composition, but a very unsatisfac
tory story.

Personal Narrative of Three Years' Service in
China. By Lieutenant-Colonel Fisher, C. 8.,
Roj al EnginPers. Bentley.
A visit to China and a safe and pleasant ktroduc

tion to the ways and customs of the Chinese, with-
out any risk of being arrested on suspicion, or of
being incarcerated and perhaf,s executed for breach
of privilege and intrusion, this is what Colonel
Fisher offers to his readers. The invitation is very
alluring, and we will answer for it that all who
accept that invitation will have no cause for disap-
pointment. The "three years" commence with the
capture of Canton in Dece&er, 1867. During the
next month, in January, 1858, the infamous vice
roy Yeh is taken prisoner, and Colonel Fisher
witnesses his embarkation for India on
board the (appropriately named:
He looked," says Colonel Fisher, " very
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
funded, 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 enrer the
city ; but, after having been for a time depo-
Ated 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 of
cruelty, has the power of rc fi3cting and feeling re-
morse 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 his
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 everything Chinese is
not only new and surprising to the reader but to
the writer of the narrative; but by September,
Colonel Fisher admits, that, having been nine
months in China, he began to take things
much as a matter of course. " But," he adds,
" For those who were fortunate enough to m .ke
the acquaintance of poor Albert Smith, who came
up at that time, a new lease of enjoyment, and ap-
preciation of all the strange sights around, was
entered upon. What a pleasure it was to walk
in the streets with him! He had such a keen
sense of the ludicrous. He appeared to possess
an 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 of fantastic agony, the dried ducks and rats,
and the wonderful pigs' faces, not split into
two pre,fites as with us, but flattened out so as
to be perfectly round and disgustingly human."
A little later on we find an interesting
description of the great 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 Gore of the rampart is filled up
with earth, much of which has evidently been ex-
cavated from the front, so es to form a ditch,
which, however, is not maintained as such, in a de-
fensive point of view. The material of which the
wall is constructed is brick and stone, many of the
former being very large, and of a blue colour; there
is a battlemented parapet on the top, and loupholea
are pierced in places between the openings. There