The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-09 00:00:00

LITERATURE

MISS BRADDON'S NEW STORY.

Fenton's Quest. By the Author of "Lady Audley's
Secret." Three Vols. Ward, Lock, and Tyler.
The principal attraction of Belgravia for some months
past has been this latest story from the hand of one who
has already contributed eighteen tales of more or less ex-
cellence to popular imaginative literature. It is a very
library of fiction that Miss Mary Elizabeth Braddon has
within the compass of but a very few years produced. And
rapidly though these works have been run off one after
another, calamo currente, it is only fair to say that the
majority of them are, as narratives, simply enthralling.
Critics may depreciate their merits, may disdain
them. as in various respects violations of art,
and some amongst them even as outrages
upon nature ; but, for all that, the tale-teller has
her way throughout with a vast multitude' of readers
secures their ready attention whenever she pleases, and
literally again and again captivates their imagination.
" The Trail of the Serpent," " Run to Earth," " The
Captain of the Vulture," and " Ralph the Bailiff," we
care little or nothing for ourselves, regarding them as
jejune performances, and in a manner purely experi-
mental. " Lady Lisle" and " Rupert Godwin" were not
much better, all considered. "Only a Clod," "The Lady's
Mile," and " Sir Jasper's Tenant" take higher rank
altogether. "Birds of Prey," "Charlotte's Inheritance,"
and " Dead Sea Fruit" are in everyway better. " John
Marchmont's Legacy," " The Doctor's Wife," and
" Eleanor's Victory " are in every way worthier of
regard, and in some respects are entitled to
the discerning reader's admiration. But, as tales of
witchery, there are three books out of the nineteen stories
thus rapidly penned by Miss Braddon, that to our
thinking still bear off the palm incontestibly and beyond
all possibility of comparison—" Aurora Floyd," " Lady
Audley's Secret, " and the " History of Henry Dunbar."
If Miss Braddon had written nothing else than those
three remarkable fictions, she would have taken rank
among the number of English novelists.. To these it is
that she owes her reputation. By them she
will be remembered. It is as the writer of those three
narratives especially that she is always welcome,
when she comes to us again bearing in her hand three new
volumes of fictitious incident. We forget the other
fifteen works, and think only of " Henry Dunbar,"of
" Aurora Floyd," and of " Lady Audley's Secret," when
we tura, somewhat eagerly, we will admit, to an examina-
tion of the present work, this novel called" Fenton's Quest,',
the last and not the least welcome reprint from the pages
of Belgravia. The Quest is not a crowner's, by the way—
it is simply a search after a missing wife, the heroine of
the narrative. Never until now, so far as our remem-
brance goes, has any novelist contrived to a jilt, a
flagrant jilt, a jilt pur et simple, not merely interesting,
but lovable. Fenton, the lover who is jilted,
for all that, strikes us throughout as rather a
spoon. Never was a trusting lover and a confiding friend
more basely deceived. Yet the guilt of his intimate
companion, the guilt of his betrothed wife that was to
have been, he meekly condones—accompanied though
that guilt is with the most despicably sly concealment.
Altogether the story here related is a sort of wicked am-
plification of ",Mariana in the moated Grange." When
Mariana is hid away at the Grange, in the dry moat of
which we are told that the primroses and violets were
scattered about in the early spring time in
affluent abundance--we miss only " the blue fly'
singing "i' the pane "—the moose in one part shrieks
behind the mouldering wainscot, and the refrain
all through that portion of the narrative is that "
he
cometh not," and that her life is " aweary, aweary." It is
Shakspere's heroine and Tennyson's in modern costume.
And as one may say all but gone to the bad—certainly
with no claim left to her entitling her to be regarded for a
moment longer with any sense of respect either for the
truthfulness or for the loyalty of her character. Two
localities there are in this book—two localities and two
characters—that after we have read the tale through
live in our remembrances as having been most
freshly and most cleverly delineated. One is
the old silversmith's den and household in
the narrow purlieus leading out of Wardour-
street, Soho. The other is the large, lonely,
rambling farm near the Grange already mentioned, the
owner of which farm is surely the strangest specimen of
an English farmer that the pen of a British novelist ever
yet pourtrayed miserly, mean, despicable, money-
grubbing, selfish, pitiless, the most contemptible of
mortals, the miserablet to looko at—marrying for her good
i
looks a young grl wh not only despises
but loathes him, and finally doing her out of
the bulk of his possessions on his deathbed by
bequeathing them to a local charity on the carefully-de-
fined condition that his name shall be conspicuously dis-
played, with esquire attached to it, as the munificent
benefactor of the institution. It is in a secluded room
of this old farm house that Marian—in Quest of whom
her jilted lover, Fenton, has been so long and almost
despairingly going through all kinds of adventures—
unnaturais at
length found to have been secreted by her
father because of the latter's determination, if possible,
to secure to himself the fortune left to her, and
away from him, by her grandfather, the Old
Soho silversmith. A fire that destroys the farm, and
all but destroys the heroine just before the close of the
story brings about the revelation—the surprise of which
would have been all the more welcome had it been
correctly conjectured for some time previously by the
reader. It would be idle to assert that Fenton's Quest
will in any way enhance, but, at the least, it fairly sus-
tains Miss Braddon's reputation as a novelist whose works
are read eagerly almost upon the moment of their publi-,

cation.

ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE, HOLBORN.
This popular place of amusement was filled to over
flowing on Monday evening on the occasion of the debit
of " Lulu," a young lady of Circassian origin, whose Wow
derful performances have earned for her the designstioli
of the eighth wonder of the world. The various feats of
equestrianism in the arena were of a highly finished oa
diverting character.; but the attraction of the evening 05
undoubtedly Lulu, whose appearance excited 12s
little wonderment, it being almost incredulol
that the possessor of a form so diminutive
should be capable of executing such astounding
feats of strength and daring as the previous annoulice.
ments had led the audience to anticipate. All appreliel,
sion of danger was allayed by the air of confidence whicv
the young gymnast evinced, and the fact that a large P '
iece
of network was extended beneath the platforln
which was suspended in mid-air on which the
er
artiste stood. One of the many feats which
cited the curiosity of the spectators, was turning
" ,f
backward somersault, and alighting from a distance ~e
twenty feet on a bridge sixteen inches wide. But t
most extraordinary of all was a perpendicular bound fr(r
the top of the fence of the circle to a height of Well'
five feet. That this is done by means of some invt:
agency is beyond a doubt, but what that agency is stile
audience are left to surmise. That the feat is skilful, till
involves calculations of extreme nicety on the part of Lowo
order to avoid being propelled beyond the mark aililecitetl
is also unquestionable ; and the applause whicsheetre of
the performer concluding by jumping from gl/ote
something like twenty feet, and malting three conivej,
revolutions in the air before alighting, was well desefa
No doubt the commodious amphitheatre will be vigtse
a large number of persons during the engagement
, wonderful young lady.

The Bishop of Manchester has written a IeAO tlie
advice to the clergy and churchwardens of St. Jo" the
Baptist's Church at Hulme, Manchester, respect eon`'
ritual observed in the Church, and against whic4
plaints have been recently made. tli4
PRESERVILD MILS.—The difficulty of obt3l,viti;
good milk has always hitherto been a vexed questi°llf °ll-
- they being entirely at them ereY °i.iiileto
dairyman who has the monopoly of the locality ill,fle if
they may chance to reside ; but it is pleasant to beAe stele,
note that an immense improvement has of late old
apparent in the supply of this truly household voi4a
Milk can now be obtained from all grocers and c,,,-olt
in a preserved state, being transported direct w Dar'sellt
from the rich pasture-lands of Switzerland, 113', tliotd
hither firmly secured in tins hermetically sealed, 606erviof
will remain good for any length of time. In its P.ise3 05
state the.milk has a pasty appearance, which is ''" roe he
the fact of sugar being mixed with it to assist Ofder Zot
of preserving ; and the only thing necessary.to r`,oor
„,' it
preserved milk ready for immediate .use 18 s,' syllelo
water upon as much as a person may wish to ns:',ol,e. tip:
at once dissolves, and is both milk and sugar g.,,,,,, ivi,.o
the present Franco-German war the .Auglo•P "ire toe
Company, of 38, Leadenhall-street, London, qie ilos_ior
their resources taxed to the utmost to supplY Paris 1): 01
armies ; and large orders were received from !ilia rigt'sio
to the investment, but for want of time they„evest IN/
be fulfilled. The rate of importation
comes, for 4-'0(0
of this article is, on an average , 1,500 ,?lrsio,lB,,eii,
11b. tins per monthshould be borne. n Vbe ''„ept
each tin is equal to five pints of crude milt raj retDie
known medical authority, Dr. Lankester, A
_noolir:gio:
inquests held by him, has commented in a law', the itilief'
manner as to the advisability of the products, o,_l_,,iiii vt;
Swiss Company being substituted for br.9es__%':,ol into?,
it was not possible for a mother to suckle n j_.,itifos_ tlil,
and it is to be hoped that, from the high el fd tits!;,,,oor
all quarters that have been gratuitously Painolo'.ifite`
presekved milk, it will become more general
such a'
apineciatcd, and meet with the success wOlO-' '
enterprise deserves.

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