The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-21 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Maidenthorpe ; or, Interesting Events about the
Year 1826. By Jeremiah Briefless, Esq., of the
Outer Temple. 2 vols. Bentley.
It would not be difficult to believe that this sin-
gular work was written at the period it refers to,
for it partakes much more of the character of the
novels of that day than of fictions of our own time.
The style belongs to that class which is most
favourably represented by De Vere and other con-
temporary productions ; the conversation is in the
stilted and extravagant tone then fashionable in
literature ; and the incidents such as are hardly
likely to happen in the present day, There is no
lack of adventure, the hero meeting with a sufficient
number of accidents in the course of his chivalrous
exploits to end the lives of several ordinary mortals.
He is a barrister
.by profession, of the name
of Bohun, and is represented as a per-
fect admirable Crichton, being gifted in a rare
degree with abilities of various kinds, and
accomplished in many different ways. He is also
remarkable for courage and presence of mind, and
possesses the marvellous faculty peculiar to heroes
of that date, of always appearing at the moment he
is wanted. He springs up like Harlequin at the
most unexpected moments, whether in a German
watering place passing for a German, at a Prince's
country seat in the guise and with the language of
an American, at an English fashionable fete trans-
formed by a pair of blue spectacles, or in many
other surprising forms. With all these appari-
tions he is nevertheless devoted to his pro-
fession, and makes a large income at the
bar. Unfortunately he generally meets with seri-
ous disasters in the pursuance of his heroic
adventures, and after being disabled many
times throughout the book is finally married with
a green shade over his eyes. No such accidents,
however, can effect the devotion of the heroine,
Lady Susan, whose miserable position naturally
makes her the more readily appreciate the merits
of her incomparable chevalier. She is the daughter
of a penniless Earl, a frequenter of the gaming
table, and has been brought up by a prim old
aunt, in a retired part of Yorkshire. The story
plunges
in niedias res at once, for the very
first chapter is entitled " The Rescue," and
introduces us to Lady Susan and her aunt
returning home from a visit, along a very perilous
road, at nightfall, when a combination of extraordi-
nary accidents befal them. A terrible thunder-
storm comes on just as they are slowly mounting a
dangerous path overhanging a precipice, and two
highway rabbers seize this very inconvenient
moment to attack them. Of course the ladies are
panic stricken, when Bohun appears upon the
scene and extricates them from all their difficulties,

though getting severely wounded, and having
previously been concerned in a similar affray,
he is quite disabled and laid up in Lady Susan's
house, the object of her anxious care. Here the
kitchenmaid, a relative of one of the robbers, tries
to poison him, but the cunning of the lawyer out-
wits her. Under these exciting circumstances, and
being freed from the surveillance of the aunt, who
is ill from frrght, it is not surprising that an at-
tachment springs up between the hero and the lady
he has rescued. The correct Lady Susan does
not scruple to engage herself without her
aunt's knowledge, and indeed meets the gentle-
man quite half way. However, owing to some
complications of Bohun's afflirs they have some
years of anxiety and patience to endure, in the
course of which each side meets with remarkable
adventures. All is at length happily settled and
the parties are able to indulge the good appetites
which we are so often told they possess, at a sump-
tuous wedding breakfast. The minuteness with
which many little incidents aro told verges on the
ridiculous, but there is certainly enough incident to
supply two or three ordinary novels, and those who
would like for a change to go back to the scenes,
incidents, and style of conduct of forty years ago,
nay find amusement in the annals of " Maiden-
thorpe."