The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-15 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Double Coronet. A Novel. By the Author
of "Charles Auchester," "My First Season,"
&c.. 2 vols. Nowby.
It is certain that a fascinati4g influence seems to
exist in this author's works. It is not probable
that any one would desist from their perusal after
having fairly entered upon it without arriving at
the conclusion. This effect is not always produced
by a striking charm in the heroes or heroines; or
from the pleasing nature of the story itself, but
rather from the spirit in which the former are de-
scribed, and from the style in which is manifested
the events of the latter. In the present instance
it is not a pleasing narrative, and although strong
characters and powerful passions require the ex-
pression of deep feeling to demonstrate their vigour,
and the occurrences of no every-day existence to
develope their tropical fervour of growth, many
might suggest that other scenes and different
agencies could have brought about the result.
That does not, however, detract from the merits of
the work. As a composition it is pre-eminent in
talent of a peculiar kind ; many distinctive charac-
ters appear in its, pages whose natures and tempe-
rament are designed by the skill of no ccmmon
composer, to be fashioned in the fabric of no ordi-
nary artificer. It is not the criterion of excellence
in a work what is in it, so much as how it is nar-
rated; and, considering the extraordinary circam-
Rilda's life is not so mn-
stances of her position,
likely as might be deduced from the first impres-
sion. She was not English ; her disposition was
inherited from the sunny clime that gave her
mother birth, and her secluded life in childhood in
a romantic home calculated to foster imaginative
speculations, rendered her still more unlike the
rest of her class, when in early youth she had to
battle with the world in the most really dangerous
of its encounters—that of loveliness and inexperi-
ence alone in its wilderness. From the appearance
of evil, and the malice and envy of the weak and
vicious, no one in her place could be sheltered, but
from its reality she was free, and in her wildest mo-
ments of defiance against the conventionalisms with
which she was surrounded, :she was ever seeking in
her heart for some city of refuge for her wearied spirit
and harassed frame. After a long time of doubt
she met with a friend, who gave her the kindest
gifts that could have been devised. The means of
benefitting others. She was established for some
years as a sister at ari hospital. She had a stem'
lesson to learn in witnessing actual misery, she
who had long dwelt in visionary trouble. After
her happy return to her own castle, when death
had freed her from her wicked husband, she must
have borne thither a very different mind to that
with which she had left it. She had acquired
knowledge in the school of suffering, which was
more capable of teaching her wisdom, than the
precepts of sages or the archives of history. An
interest attaches itself to the brothers, so different
in nature, yet alike in original vivacity of dispo-
sition. In descanting upon them, it must be borne
in mind, that though dwellers among a practical
people in a prosaic age, their native land and kin-
dred race were very different. " They were found
beneath far eastern skies," and what appears exag-
gerated in their thoughts and actions might be
otherwise regarded as inherited characteristics of
the fire which animated the warriors of the desert,
and the cunning whose stratagems ruled the cities
of the plain. It is not every one who cares to
analyse feelings, and study causes in a work of
fiction ; they seek amusement, which does not de-
mand the travail of the mind, or the exercise of the
reasoning faculties. But those who desire some-
thing beyond an ephemeral trifle for diversion will
appreciate the high imaginative quality wherever
and whenever it is to be found ; if some parts are
inadequate, and some passages not pleasing, the
general impression will remain of an approxima-
tion towards a lofty standard which no shortcom-
ings can obliterate, and no deficiencies destroy. The
works of this author display the impress of a mas-
ter mind; they are striking, not only from original
idea; but from unusual talent. PL culiarity of style
may make a distinction, but genius has placed them
on a vantage ground.