The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-20 00:00:00

L I TEI?AI URE.

_Forest Keep, Three Vols. Hurst and Blackett.
This is a tale of singular originality, and great
ingenuity is shown in its construction. The sane
is laid five hundred years ago, in the martial days
of the Black Prince. It is not, strictly speaking, an
historical romance, since the actors in the story are
fictitious characters, although the hero of Cressy
and Poitiers is introduced, and some stirring scenes
of the French campaign are described with anima-
tion and spirit. Prominent among these is the
battle of Poitiers itself, with the capture of King
John and his son. The tale, however, is quite cha-
racteristic of the times—wild adventure, desperate
crimes, and resolute daring distinguishing both
knights and dames. The extreme complication of
the plot is more like an Italian romance than a
legend of our own land, while the reader will not
fail to admire the skill with which the various

threads of the entangled skeins are by degrees un-
ravelled and woven together, joining in one the
mysteries of France, Spain, and several parts of
England. The care and painstaking exactitude of
the author is also evinced by the precision with
which he clears up every little obscurity which
may have perplexed the reader in the earlier pages,
although it may have afterwards been forgotten.
It would be d'officult, indeed, for the most expe-
rienced novel-reader to divine the hidden secrets of

t e plot or to conjecture the dark deeds of Sir
Ralph de Sulac, the villain of the piece, and his
remorseful accomplice, Inez di Gava. The author
is evidently familiar with many of those poets and
writers whose spirit-stirring songs have invested
the middle ages with such potent attractions for
the young and imaginative. He is acquainted, too,
with the scenery described, for we are told in the
preface that " the tourist through Western Somerset
may yet recognise in a narrow meadow by the wind-
ing Exe the crumbling walls of Bralynch Abbey,
and trace the ruins of the Reformer's Chapel in a
deep gorge by the seashore, about a mile to the
west of Minehead Point." The Castle of Redstun,
which owned such an unworthy ruler in the days
when the Lady Beatrice was carried there captive,
still stands, it is said, in feudal dignity ; and in the
Vale of Argellez, near the Pyrenees, are the old
towers
of the stately keep, which witnessed Wil-
fred's incarceration, his narrow escape from death
in many ghostly forms, and the murder of his
mother by her own sister's hands. The writer's
mistake is in introducing reflections or remarks in
the style of the present day. In the story itself a
degree of unity is preserved, but when the author
teps in and alludes to the events of our own
times
and adopts the easy modern tone, the illusion is
lestroyed, which, in a work of historical character,
it is so important to preserve. A novelist who se-
lects for his subject the scones and characters of a
bygone age, should study to preserve his consistency
throughout. He should depend entirely on the story
itself
eavne
rd itsmake
on t h
e transition accessories t o
from interest
the
mthaennreeardseorf
one reader,
but
age to another, for the reader makes the passage
never
with him, and does not always return when it
pleases the author to pass again into the world of
dreams. There is a degree of diffuseness also which
might be advantageously curtailed, and which is un-
worthy of an author who has so much to say, and
should not, therefore, condescend to the resources
of less ingenious writers. It is the more desirable
that these defects may be avoided, as the author pos-
sesses undeniable ability, and will probably, with
time and experience, produce works of a higher
character. We must not omit to mention that seve-
ral ballads are scattered through the Volumes
which possess considerable merit.