The Sun.
London, England, 1854-08-14 00:00:00

LITEBATUBB.

The Netecomes. NoT
ehac
sh.aalorkxe.tr,eary and
X.., XI. By W. M.
The descriptions ofsociety in " The
tNheewmcoosmtehsr"ilhaarnet athmaotnhg the happiest and about
master-hand of William aTvheayoketereamya..naHtedis fromstyle tahpe_
pears to have acquired au abounding ease beyond
the reach of further improvement. Our author
allno iswhwriwtersithg
writes—at his
thisbest. His new work is, among
aF l
unnoakvnee l
the most finished
ill: most purely, fluently, and
racily idiomatic.
otherwisey confessed,et' a
even
even in the bestnever wrote as he writes now,
portions of " Vanity Fair," or in
of W. M. Thackery,
Hardly chapters of " Pendennis." And
" The Newcomes" must be
-sßuacaiznloyaus.k is the more infatuated admirers
loytherwise M. A. Titmarsh,
scarcelyßt
told a
at
ssallyiin the
Knife-
grinder. Interest, strictlye°l76
i_
J.3triaFYe "plush, otherwise Punch's
by extraordinary (l:, Contributor, to be marked
cidncies. Story, there is
yb.more than what had to be
speaking, interest that is
by Mr. Canning's
gen"era'll inspired by a fictitious nar-
rative, there is
returned to his re absolutely none. The Colonel has
consequently, the l gunent in Hindostan. And,
down, as it were, at
tminary of the tale having gone
the succeeding noon, we travel on through
twilight of
thsaportions of the serial in a
were witnessing disappointment. It is as if we
" Hamlet" h • e last two or three acts of
being performed without the Prince of
Denmark any more making
Newcome is
no .his appearance. Colo-
nelongerit,
before the footlights.
We only hear of nimi
"stage whispers" IT and then in audible
lachr!mcc. Hence, behindwe have the scenes. Ilinc illce
of the Newcomes—Clive, to do only with the rest
Lady Ann, Hobson, little Barnes, Ethel, Sir Brian,
rest—
with feelingsof half-ann Alfred, and the
almost poignant vexationVe, and now and then of
But to the development of
the story—such as it is. The Colonel having returned
to India—Clive, accompanied by J. J., goes on a
continental tour in search, not like Dr. Syntax,
but like young artists asl
Beau-
tiful and the Picturesque,
they are, of the
unexpectedly upon Ethel audAt Bonn they come
the whole family,
with the exception of Barnes and Sir Brian, who
turn up some time afterwards,
after
on to Baden and settled down they have gone
there for a whil in
a state of infinite enjoyment,
there too—the aristocratic ha Old Lady Kew is
lord, Ethel's affianced, gay,
and the young
manly
debonnair, and handsome. At Baden. , open-hearted
little incident of an episodical character—between
there occurs a
laracter—between
honest Jack Belsize, late of the Horse
suddenly meets his old " Young love" Guards, who
Pulleyn (now engaged to h
-e married Lady Clara
delec-
table Mr. Barnes) on the promenad to the
abrupt apparition, haggard, and withe—and by his
a huge bushy
beard, drives her on the instant into a fainting fit
Barnes arrives at Baden immediately afterwards.
The The scene which takes place onthe
evenin
day of public meeting between Jack
and Cg of the
Clara—
the scene which taes place that
Clive's bedroom in the midst of cigar
evening in
eigar smoke,
wranglings, and explanations, we deem perhaps
the very best in the whole book
description. Clive Newcome, Jack as a graphic
Belsize, Lord
Kew, and M. le Viscomte de Florae the
inimitable and delightful M. do
Florae, the most
exquisitely choice delineation after
that of our
Colonel,
beloved favourite the dear old Colon beyond all
question the best sketch of a Frenchman
off by the hand of an Englishman ever dashed
—these four
wrangling
are the interlocutors. With their
angling and
reconciliation over tobacco, water,seltzer " ecri-
visses," and champagne, the June number closes.
The instalment for July brings us to the departure
fre". of Belsize, Clive, and J. J. Baden—
poor Clive being forced to beat a retreat before
Ethel's unattainable fascinations. As the young
informs hero himself grotesquely inf J. J. while
they
are packing—a retreat somewhat after
of that iu which, in 1803, the Colon
Newcome, with his horse killed under
his nether mall clad in a pair of very l the manner
Colonel, then Lieut.
etight buck-
skins, ran away as well as he could, considering
the close embraces of (literally) his
horsemen at
small clothes,
fairly ran away from the Mahratta
the siege of Asseer-Ghur I The
three having
posted away from what was danger to the hearts
of two among them—leave Baden to the rest of