The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-28 00:00:00

LITERA7 ÜBE.

English Women of Letters. By Julia Kavanagh.
2 Vols. Hurst and Blackett.
All who feel interest in, or curiosity concern-
ing, the rise and progress of English fiction will
welcome with pleasure Miss Kavanagh's compa-
nion work to her " French Women of Letters."
Not only does she give biographies in it of our
principal female novelists, from Aphra Behn to
Lady Morgan, but she describes the plots of their
chief works, and comments on their distinctive fea-
tures with equal clearness and judgment. The
work is thus not merely descriptive, but critical.
The author points out the influence each writer has
exercised on the works of the present day, gives
extracts illustrative of their styles, and thus
affords the general reader a better idea of the in-
fluence exercised in this country by female authors,
than could be obtained by months of reading with
this special object in view. "The French novel,"
she says, " has always been, and, until the decay of
French literature, it promises to be, the most popu-
lar of any written. It generalises and appeals best
to the feelings and tastes of foreigners. It has
been abused, and often hated, but it has always been
read. Few can resist its attraction, for it has the
art of not wearying. Its rule, however, is subject
to the vicissitudes of great and sudden popularity—
it is brief. French novels die quickly, in France
and out of it. Often, when they survive, they owe
their durabilityto some extraneous gift—to the fame,
the style, the genius of the writer—rarely to the
pleasure of the reader. In English literature it is
not so ; there the novel that has ceased to please
has ceased to live. English novels have seldom the
sudden and universal success of the French ; but
their power, if less fascinating, is far more durable.
They take their stand on safer and less imaginative
ground. They do not seem written to propagate
certain doctrines, to excite and amuse, but to be
true, and truth has an immortal charm. It is sur-
prising to see how lasting an impression they have
left in all foreign literature. Wherever we turn
we see their trace in form or substance. They
have many deficiencies, some of which are painful ;
they are not as a rule great literary works, models
of thought or style; they do not always possess
the attractions of universal genius or of famous
names, but their power is complete, and from the
days of Aphra Behn to this, a narrow, but stubborn
and prevailing strength has been their lot." Female
influence in the novel now threatens, she thinks, to
become overwhelming. "It has lost its repelling
coarseness—a great gain—but it is to be feared that
its manliness and its truth are in peril. English
novel-writing has well-nigh fallen en queneust
for great pictures of human life cannot
be
with called
novels. The mere novel, the plain tale,
w its
rarely
written characters and incidents, is
"twher benty
written by men ; their genius takes 800. d
and seeks other paths—and it is this that has game
The novelists
and suffered from feminine influence."
nre entative
whom the author has selected it representative
ing
literary women are ten in num ' author of
Aphra Behn, Miss Fielding (sister 0...rf trshe.
Charlotte
" Tom Jones"), Madame iyArblhaPe
b ld, Miss Edge-
Smith, Mrs. Radcliffe, Mrs.
I•11,c and Lady Morgan.
worth, Miss Austen, Mrs.
ore recent of these still
A few of the works of the
were
as mere literary
survive, the rest must
They were useful, however,
curiosities or lumber.
mey have all contributed
in their generation. They
structure of the modern
something towardsever volumes of Miss Kavanagh
novel, and in the clever
their claims are duly allowed.
B
fling or f e ore a After B
• y t
Slaves 0" G ;randmother's nd
Money." 3 vohe
ls.
Author of
Hurst and Blackett.
" Slaves of the
scarcely need say that by
We
King„are meant certain unlucky individuals who,
having entered into the marriage state without
, due care for the consequences, find the bondage
far from easy, and the burden unpleasantly heavy.
It is, in fact, the evil of ill-assorted marriages that
the author has taken for her theme, and she has dis-
played no small amount of skill in its treatment.
The tale is cast in the form of a narrative, the sup-
posed narrator being a young half German, named
Neider, who, coming into possession by the death
of his father of a small Cumberland farm, qualifies
himself for its management by a twelvemonth's
tuition under Farmer Genny, at Welsdon in the
Woods. Arriving somewat late at the village inn,
he meets with a fellow-pupil named Thirsk, and the
two, though widely different in temperament and
disposition, strike up a considerable degree of
friendship. Neider is a model of propriety—in
Thirsk the elements of good and evil are strangely
mixed, and produce sad discord; whilst a third pupil,
named Grey, is less strongly defined, and is chiefly
remarkable for his fervent though unhappy attach-