The Sun.
London, England, 1835-05-06 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

THE HEIR OF MORDA UNT. A NOVEL.
3 Vols. post Bvo.
Richard Bentley, London, 1835.

This is a very animatod and interesting novel. The
plot is so ingeniously contejved as to keep the reader's
curiosity in a state of excitement from beginning to
end. This is as it should be. Modern writers are too
apt to forget the real purpose of 1-7ction, which should
consist as much in the working out of an intricate
fable as in the development of charactery or the illustra-
tion of manners. There should be, in short, as in
Fielding's Tom Jones," always a mystery to pene-
trate, and in this very essential portion of story-telling,
the present authoress (whom we understand to be Miss
Cathcart, a near relative of the Earl of that name),
has shown herself to be a perfect mistress. In the
subordinate features of her novel, namely, in the dia-
logue, and in sketches of the existing state of society,
she has demonstrated equal talent.
The story of the " Heir of Mordaunt" turns chiefly
on two points, one of which is a certain secret agency
operating in manifold ways against the happiness of
the hero and heroine (Lord Delmore and Augusta
IVlordaunt), the prime mover of which is not for a long
time suspected ; while the other consists of the sur-
reptitious claims set up by various pretenders to the
property of Mordaunt, involving situations powerfully
moving the sympathy, and stimulating the anxiety of
the reader. In threading the mazes of the tale, and
pursuing them to the denouement, we have been more
than ordinarily amused, and hail with pleasure this re-
currence to a genuine taste in fiction.
Of the characters we were chiefly struck by those
of Lady Caroline Mortimer and Mr. Stafford, alias
O'Donnel ; the former a mischievous, revengeful,
scheming woman of birth, scattering her evil spells
around her, and heaping up, not, as she trusted, the
ruin of others, but enduring remorse for herself ; and
the latter an unprincipled rota, who attempts to prop
his declining fortunes by perpetual falsehood and daring
pretence. For such as read novels for entertainment,
here is one which will delightfully beguile an evening
or two ; and those who, like Jacques, love to extract a
moral from every thing, will find in the perusal much
matter for meditation.

The Princess Victoria's birth-day is to be cele-
brated at the Surrey Zoological Gardens by a grand fete,
on which occasion the veteran aeronaut, Green, is to make his
last ascent but one (being the 199th) accompanied by the
well-known monkey, Jacoppo, who is to descend in a pa-
rachute.
ACCIDENT.—A young artist, Bates, went to pur-
chase paint, and while there, had the misfortune to fall
through a trap door to the stable below—a distance of about
eighteen feet. He was taken up in much agony, and found
to have fractured his arm in two places, the bone literally pro-
truding through the skin I What renders the accident more
distressing is, that
the suffering individual is a stranger in the
island, without friends and money. He is in a very dangerous
state.—Jersey Argus.
Mr. Sheil intends to call for a vote of the House
on the oath question, though no rational being, who has a
spark of candour in his breast, can regard the Pharisaical fuss
that is made about it, as anything more than a second edition
of the rogueries that were played off upon the stupidity of
George the Third, on the Coronation oath.—Dublin Register.
A most alarming fire took place at Bideford on
Friday, at the Plough Inn, kept by Mr. Lock. Himself and
wife escaped by getting out of the window, in a state of
nudity ; but their servant girl fella victim to the devouring
element.— Western Times.