The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-31 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Dean's Daughter ; or, The Days we Live in.
By Mrs. Gore. 3 vols. Hurst and Black-ott.

This work is another of Mrs. Gore's satirical
sketches of modern society. Her views of the pre-
sent state of men and manners are far from favour-
able. The mean, the deceitful, and the slanderous
are her types of this generation. Her motto is
from Shakspere—" Thus we play the fools with
the time, and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds
and mock us." But the attentive reader of these
volumes will assuredly be of opinion that the cha-
racters pourtrayed in them were more knaves than
fools, and, with the single exception of Richard Har-
greave, were only too wise for their own reputation.
The heroine, however, is no daughter of fashion ;
she was born in a quiet country parsonage, and
brought up in the most raired manner. Subse-
quently, she was introduced to a wealthy family in
the neighbourhood, who supposed her to bean heiress,
and treated her with the greatest consideration.
However, on her father's death the mistake was
discovered, and this instantly changed their manner.
Notw,ithatanding this insiAit into the hollow-
ness of worldly proles ion; and, although she laid
claim to a love of seclusion, She' fell as easily into
the snares prepared for her as the most inexpe-
rienced girl, although married ten years. Thus,
weak and unprincipled is the most pleasin,, and in-
teresting character ; it may, therefore, be imagined
how the really disanTeeable develops' themselves.
All must admit 'the authoress's powers of
description -and her life-like delineations, but
we are tempted to wish that in all the wide circles
to which she introduces us, wo might find at least
one exception' to her sweeping censures. However,
for those who delight in beholding the vices, the
follies, and the vanities of mankind held up before
them as in a mirror, entertainment to an nnlimited
degree is here provided. The night side of artificial
existence is given to our gaze, the ornaments are all
shown to be meretricious, the glitter is dross, and
the merit counterfeit. Under the disguise of
friendship and love the worst passions have scope
for play, and the vilest plans are carried out. Mrs.
Gore certainly bears testimony to the veracity of
the statement that " the heart of man is deceitful
and desperately wicked." As an instance of the
style, the following description of a man who takes
an important part in the work may be cited. Barty
Tomlinson, one of the most humiliating specimens
of human nature, is here introduced :

"The old must remember, of their own knowledge,
and the young may have been taught by novelists and
dramatists (who teach more, by the way, than their
scholars are apt to admit), that the toady of former
days, and the parasite of other centuries, was a com-
plaisant, compliant creature, making its way in the
world by subservience and acquiescence. It is not so
now. The distinctive features of the class had grown
too notorious ; the nature of the beast was apparent at a
glance, and all were on their guard. At the present
moment looks out, on arriving at a strange house, for the
man who complains to his host that his wine is culsed,
to the hostess that her childreu aro troublesome, the
man who bullies the servants and overworks the horses,
and, in the shape of a domestic tyrant, or, at all events,
of the man universally contradictory, you will be pretty
sure to find the dirty dog of the establishment.
"The company of the contemned Tomlinson was
otherwise appreciated than by the Fanshawes. To most
country-house parties, indeed, he was considered an ao-
quisition. Barty Tomlinson was a man not afraid of
hearing his own voice, even in interruption of the deadest
silence or most august personage. He was always
ready to impart information to those who knew better
than himself,—to patronise his superiors,—and to go in
and win from his despisers. There was nothing he
would not attempt in the way of rallying the dull out of
their dulness, and promoting by the discomfiture of the
few the hilarity of the many.
"His principal victims were his host and hostess.
Lest anybody should suppose that he over-valued the
venison and claret of Sir Thomas, or because aware that
personal insolence often induces parvenus to set the same
value upon a man which he sets upon himself, he seldom
neglected an opportuntity of placing themselves and their
possessions in the most depreciating light. He made it
a rule to contradict all they asserted, and oppose all
they desired."

Agatha's Husband. By the Author of " Olive,'
(tic. Chapman and Hall. 3 vols.
Last year we had the pleasure of expressing our
very cordial admiration for a work by this authoress,
" The Head of the Family," and we are gratified.
in being enabled to award similar praise to her new
novel recently published. We say that we are
gratified in being enabled to give praise, and it is
the fact, for whatever some authors may think of
the severity of critics, we can assure them that, so
far as we are ourselves concerned, it affords us
inexpressible gratification when justice and com-
mendation can go hand-in-hand, which, however,
is not always the case, more e.,ipecially as far as the
fashionable novels of modern days are concerned.
In turning over the leaves of some three-volumed
fiction, we occasional near (1 as to what possible
inducement could have led the author or authoress
to expend so much time and trouble in penning so
many profitless pages, which will, perhaps, after
months or years of preparation, only exist as many
days or weeks. Many, alnicst countless, are the
novels now issuing from the press, and of these
how few are really worth the reading, how few are
perused for a second time, how few are likely to
take their places among the standard literature of
the day. At the preset;; moment, however, our
consideration is not called to these ephemera. The
authoress of " Olive" may take a higher rank.
Her books are worth the reading ; we turn back to
them with pleasure, we remember them with pro,
fit. Ono great reason for her success is that this
authoress has a purpose in what she does. She
does not take up her pen (as one might imagine to
be the practice of some novelists) without knowing
what she means to say. In her own heart some
earnest purpose exists, and right skilfully does
her hand obey the impulse so given. Beyond.
this, she herself believes in what she writes ; her
characters are even in her own sight not ideal
creations, but real living beings. This is one of
the main causes of interest in a work of fiction.
If the author cannot invest his heroes and heroines
with individuality in his own estimation, how can
he expect to give them an existence in the imagi-
nation of his readers It is a fact become prover-
bial, that only he who believes can lead captive the
belief of others ; only lie who feels can excite the
sympathy of many hearts. The authoress of this
work, we can well imagine, looked with a pitying
tenderness on the passionate sorrows of Katharine
Ogilvy, and followed with admiring interest the
patient struggles of the gentle 'Olive ; but her
latter works are our especial favourites ; and we
can fancy that the self-sacrificing Ninian Graeme,
the "head" of the orphan "family," and the re-
resolute, silent " husband" of " Agatha" are, in
the eyes of their biographer, the subjects of no little
respect and admiration. The delineation of two
natures, singularly opposed to each ,other, is a
favourite task with the writer, and one in which
she singularly excels. We hardly know t
owhich
to award the preference in this instance—whether
Agatha,
twohotsheetefnradnehesismpoulsf heart, undisciplined
, whose faults and vir-
tues are visible in every word—or to the calm,
el Nathaniel Harp;:-_-, " Agatha's
s f-
ema
husband,""liinodnegof those characters which, like the
volcanic mountains, are 'of ice without and of fire
within. The position in which the hero and he-
roine are placed by the narrator of their fortunes,
is one in which, with, a cruelly skilful hand, she
has made their mutual peculiarities of temperament
painfully con:Tibute to their mutual torture. We
are reminded of the title of a story, published some
years back, " The Billow and the Rock," for such,
in fact, is the position of Agatha and her husband
—she the tumultuous, agitated billow, and he the
stern, immovable rock, while a, few words of ex-
planation can at once end this painful and unnatu-
ral state of things. We shall not destroy the
interest of the story by explaining more. We com-
mend it to our readers, confident that the majority
will admire in it the beautiful development of
Agatha's character, as trials and emotions discip-
line it ; and they will admire, too, the skill and.
delicacy visible in the portraiture of Nathaniel—his
painful distrust—his absorbing affection—his reso-
lute adherence to principle, and the stern main-
tenance of silence, even when his secret, likt the
Spartan boy's, is tearing away his very life. These
characteristics are illustrated in a manner which
displays no inconsiderable talent. The thoughts
suggested by the perusal of Agatha's history are
of the most ennobling kind. The solemn import-
ance of the marriage tie, and the heart-communion
which should subsist between husband and„ wife,
are impressively enforced upon the reader. Other
characters in the book divide our interest with the
hero and heroine. Among these is the gentle, dis-
appointed Anne Valery, no longer young,
her brown hair faintly mingled with white, if,
as is beautifully said, "two snow hand shad gently
shmelaorottyl
e hersister
r otfr tresses." saetsh.a"nrifeal,rriisetaDie gadrtiiillei
gt the e
portrait,ia
and her husband, Duke, gainsupwoithou upon
Harper is throughout the object of our contempt
and aversion. It is, however, in oltha and
Agatha's husband, that the chief attraction lies—
lli affectionnh as
r
we become better acquainted Ao j
lies—
in their mutual peculiarities of character—in their
mutual suffering, and, ultimately, in their mutual
happiness. It is a book which has afforded us plea-
sure, and we look forward to some future meeting
with the authoress of " Agatha's Husband."

COMMUTATION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.—Margaret
Bell, who was convicted capitally for the murder of her
infant, at the Circuit Court of Glasgow, has had her
sentence commuted to transportation for life, in oonse•
quence of the recommendation to mercy of the jury, aid
the hdvico of Lord Cockburn, bko presiding judge.