The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-26 00:00:00

LITBRA. TUR.E.

The 'Semi-Detached House. Edited by Lady
Theresa Lewis. Bentley's Standard Novels.
Richard Bentley.
This delightful story has just appeared in
Mr. Bentley's Novels, a series which has already
included many popular works. The novel of
" Rita," Anthony Trollope's " Three Clerks," and
" Say and Seal," which has attained such an ex-
traordinary circulation in America, have been
prominent among them. There could scarcely
have been a happier selection than " The Semi-
Detached House," which was one of the most
successful, as well as the most pleasing, among last
season's works of fiction. The freshness and ease
of the style, the simplicity and total absence of
pretension in the narrative, and the life-like variety
of the characters, all combine to render it a most
pleasant companion for a leisure hour. The vulgar
assumption and heartless hypocrisy of the Samp-
sons are admirably contrasted with the honest,
kindly, and simple Hopkinsons, and the frankness
and affability of real nobility. Lady Chester is a
charming character, notwithstanding her imagi-
nary troubles, and her Aunt Sarah is the
impersonation of sound and sober sense.
Lady Chester and her sister are occupants of the
semi-detached house, during Lord Chester's absence
on a foreign mission, which he has been persuaded
to accept in the firstyear of his marriage, to the great
regret of his young wife, Blanche. She is advised
to leave London for a time, so takes up her abode
in " the semi-detached house," prophesying dire-
ful things of her next door neighbours, who, she
is sure, will be vulgar, meddlesome, disagreeable.
people. However, she finds they are pleasant•,
kindhearted, unaffected folks, and a warm friendship
springs up between them. Many love affairs are
carried on, in one of which Blanche plays tire part
•of fairy godmother, and fortunately they all end
happily. " The Semi-detached House" has al-
ready attained a considerable degree 011 favour
among novel readers, and we could hardly imagine
a pleasanter volume for the busy idle•aess of the
sea-side or country house.

Town and Forest. By the Author of " Mary
Powell." Bentley,
The author of " Mary " The Ladies, of
Bever Hollow," and many another pleasant and
profitable work, is so well known to the public,
that a story from her pen scarcely needu the
critic's recommendation. The work before us,
however, is less a fictitious narrative than a.
series of vivid pictures drawn from the
scenes which lie around us even in this great
and wealthy metropolis. The chief actors in
the story are a poor city missionary, and a young
brewer's clerk and his sister, with whom he lodges.
The record of Mr. Bolter's life and labours among
the filth, vice, and wretchedness of Hopkinsville
are founded on fact, many of the incidents and anec-
dotes being authentic. By degrees he sees light
breaking in on the scene of his labours, and hopes
gradually to effect an improvement in the moral and.
physical destitution of the people; but before his
good work is accomplished he falls a victim to a
fever caught among these miserable localities-
Hopkinsville, the suburb he devotes himself to,
is described as one of the results of railway enter-
prise, run up chiefly for the accommodation of those
employed in the neighbourhood, with " only one
entrance-door and passage to every four houses—
neither drained, paved, nor lighted. These houses
form numerous small streets, and contain do
families of about a thousand men." No wonder
after hearing similar details, that the friend to
whom the missionary is describing the scene of
his labours impetuously asks, "Have speculators a
right, in the sight of Gcd, to build dwellings so,
destitute of sanitary provisions, that sickness andt
death are sure to ensue to the inhabitants ?" The
forest also comes in for a share of Mr. Bolter's
labours, and one of his most promising pupils is
Pharoah Smith, a gipsy lad. Whether we coin-
cide in all the writer's views or no, it is impossible
not to sympathise with her fervent sense of the
miseries of her fellow creatures, and her earnest
desire to aid them. Where there is such good and
kindly feeling labouring in behalf of those who need
it so deeply, surely technical differences of creed and
opinion should not be over estimated. The follow-
ing passage, taken from a conversation between
Mr. Bolter and a benevolent Quaker lady, ex-
presses the spirit of the work :
" Yes," resumed she, " men are the chief
want, and .the wonder is they don't come for-
ward. They will go on a forlorn hope to the
North Pole, or penetrate Central Africa, for par'
poses of science and commerce, nay, they will
try to force Christianity into regions that
as yet are really impenetrable, while they leave
fearful amount of undone work at home. A Jew
converted at Jerusalem is made much of ; are there
no Jews in St. Mary Axe? An. enthusiastic young
lady gets our Government into trouble by distribut-
ing the Scriptures in Italy against the law of the
country : are there no Ro-man Catholics in Seven
Dials ? A brave romantie man attempts to con-
vert the gipsies in Spain : are there none in Epping
Forest? Truly, they may say to us, as my little
boy did to his nurse, when she attempted to cut his
meat, Interfere with thine own plate !' "
Bolter could not help laughing. " A h," she con-
tinued, " for the man who aims to be, rather than
appear to be, a hero, there is plenty of work at
home. As one of your own writers has said, It
is true that for the Golden Valley, he may have
the Commercial Road ; he may have streets for vil-
lages, courts for hamlets, the pool for his nearest
lake, the sewer for his rivulet, and the scum of all.
the earth for his disciples; but such were the very
scenes in which the Apostle of the Gentiles fought
with beasts, and bearded the lion in his den. In
the eyes of Heaven, smoke-stained walls are es
bright as leafy groves, the dusty street as the
flowery mead, and the artisan's wan child as the
blooming village maiden.'"—" True, quite true,
said Mr. Bolter, " and therefore I would not, if I
could, exchange the fetid lanes of Hopkinsville for
' the glades of Hainault and Epping." Ellen
Miller is a charming character and there is
much pleasant conversation and anecdote in the,
book. It is written in its author's usual easy and
unaffected style, though its purpose is earnest and
its tone elevated. Should it be instrumental ill
bringing home to the hearts of its readers a sense
of the urgent need of their own countrymen and
women for the aid so freely bestowed on the Hin doe
and the African, it will indeed have accomplished-
a good work.