The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-27 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Step Sisters. By the author of " Heather-
brae," &c. 3 vols. Booth, Regent-street.
This is a complicated story, which contains a
great many characters, and furnishes the reader
with an abundance of interesting excitement and
amusement. Some of the personages introduced
are very ably described, and in particular Mr.
Ferrars. There is something very striking in this
gentleman's whole demeanour, and the real kind-
ness of his nature contrasts curiously with the
sternness of his manners and the abruptness of
his style. The two sisters are very attractive in
their different ways. Gertrude, the younger, was
by far the most pleasing; but the many chances
and changes through which Mabel passed in the
course of her career, that is here chronicled be-
fore us, combined to soften her; and, before our
last glimpse of her, she is almost transformed
from the wild and imperious heiress at first
brought before us. The incident of Ernest Douglas
proving the son of Mr. Ferrars is very ingeniously
arranged, and the circumstances of the trial insti-
tuted by the claimant of the Douglas property dis-
tracts the attention from the real finale to the affair,
and for once the oft-told tale of an enfant trouve
appears in an original form. The engagement
of Gertrude to Harold Grenville is one of
those mistaken actions which are occasion-
ally committed with the best intentions.
Fortunately Gertrude was prevented from fulfilling
the melancholy sacrifice she had proposed to make
by the death of Harold, his long sufferings could
only have known that release, and it would not
have been any gain for him to have survived a few
years and drag on a lingering life of misery, thus
darkening the opening of Gertrude's bright young
days. Sir Charles Vernon presents an apt sketch
of a weak man, who, having plunged himself into
difficulties, has neither the prudence to extricate
himself nor patience to hear the advice of others;
hence the ruin which might have been averted soon
overwhelms him. As is often the case, Sir Charles
could not abide the suffering he had occasioned, and
he soon sank under the blow. Of a very different
class is the Earl of Sunbury ; he is one of those
crafty, calculating men who stop at nothing which
they think can advance their interests, and set at
nought the dictates of honour and the suggestions
of generosity or aay of the finer feelings of
humanity. The manner in which he behaved after
the news came that Mabel was no longer an heiress
was most disgraceful, and it was well that his son,
whom he had endeavoured to impress with less
worldly motives, did not share them. Lord
Clarence Emerton improved greatly during
his intercourse with Mabel and her friends
and relatives. The more he studied their
unworldly natures, the more did he deplore his
father's mercenary views and contracted ideas of
honour. He refused to relinquish Mabel because
she bad lost her fortune, and he at last succeeded
in his efforts to arrange matters. On the whole
there is a good deal to attract notice in this book,
and it represents some important phases of exist-
ence. We meet with some of those individuals
who, by their skill, or through their opportunities,
exercise a powerful influence on the affairs of so-
ciety. "The Step-Sisters" is a novel that may
please by its interesting sketches of domestic life,
while it presents matters of grave import to en-
gage the attention of those who would see below
the surface and trace events to their causes, in
order to study the motives of men and the springs
of actions. The author may be satisfied with the
result of these pages, as they certainly form an
agreeable fiction for the perusal of the many
readers of that class.

Agony Point : or, The Groans of "Gentility." By
the Rev. J. Pycroft, author of "Twenty Years in
the Church," &c. 2 vols. Booth.
Mr. Pycroft's former works have already ob-
tained for him a high reputation, which the
work before us, with its sound sense, animated
style, and keen perception of the follies and falla-
cies of our social existence will probably consider-
ably increase. There is nothing absolutely original
in its prevailing topic ; many a voyager has passed
"Agony Point, and many more have found it
impassable, but it is something new to find
the candid and open expression of the truth which
must be secretly admitted by many of the weary
and careworn victims to " Gentility." "Agony
Point" is the name which the Rector of the parish,
a shrewd and observant man, bestows upon the
situation in which be sees many of his chief
parishioners ; the wretched state in which
every nerve is strained to keep up an imaginary
position, to vie with those far wealthier in a
ruinous competition of extravagance, spending
almost every pound on outside show, while every
penny is begrudged to substantial and unpretend-
ing comforts. In fact, it is the mania which, of
late years, has unhappily spread so widely among
our middle classes, which has brought so many to
ruin, tempted some into fraud, and forced thou-
sands to lead anxious lives of deception and
discomfort, from the continual striving to appear
richer than they are. By an ingenious inversion of
rational logic the luxuries and superfluities of life
become the first necessities with such persons. They
would rather want absolute essentials for domestic
comfort, provided such deficiency remained un-
known, than forego the possession of needless
trifles which are " expected in their position."
They deny themselves simple pleasures to which
their means really entitle them, to minister to their
idol, and are guilty of a series of petty meannesses
in secret to be able to maintain " the family sub-
scriptions" openly. This is the weakness and the
folly which Mr. Pycroft unsparingly exposes, but
which he presents in a more excusable form than the
one in which we often seeit. However blameable the
conduct of a landed proprietor, with a large sum
of money at command, in getting involved through
mismanagement and weakness, the reckless o -ten-
tation of families with limited or fluctuating in-
comes, dependent perhaps on one life, and with
little or no future provision, is certainly far more
culpable. Yet how often is this seen, and how
large a share has it had in many of the great com-
mercial frauds which have disgraced this genera-
tion. The cruelty of bringing up chiidren in
such ways, of educating them in luxury
and idleness, while all they can really anticipate is
a life of labour and difficulty, is also strongly dwelt
upon. In the life of Willie Langley, the eldest
son of the hero, and the idol of his mother, Mr.
Pycroft shows us the startling transition which, in
too many cases, would prove a lasting change. The
hero and heroine of the tale, Tom and Minnie
Langley, are both very attractive characters and
good dispositions, frank, generous, and affectionate.
They are both, however, unsophisticated and inex-
perienced. Tom, whose career of idle pleasure was
early terminated by his marriage, always thought
his means would be commensurate with his wishes,
and was too fond of his wife and family to refuse
any desire. Minnie, whose natural good sense
might
have prevented mischief, shrunk from
money topics from a painful personal
touching on
reason. Her parents, who also lived at " Agony
Point," had engaged, on her marriage, to allow
her £2OO a-year to match the settlement which
fortunately they exacted from Tom. This promise
they knew very well would not be fulfilled, and
accordingly, after a very few quarters, their in-
solvency was announced. Poor Minnie, grieved
and mortified, never liked to speak to her husband
about money matters, knowing how far her family
had fallen short of their engagements. Tom
Langley, too, committed the great mistake of never
facing .his difficulties and ascertaining the extent of
them, and he shrank from enlightening his wife.
Added to these causes, both shared in the mania of
keeping up appearances, of doing all that " the
Langleys of Langley Hall" had done for gene-
rations, and, in consequence, that ancestral abode
became known among spiteful neighbours by the
sobriquet of " Hard-up Hall." Tom tried farming
his own land, and was robbed by his agent and
cheated by his labourers. Minnie tried managing
her dairy, which attempt was presently abandoned.
At length, after repeated demands on their capital,
bitter experience and the advice of friends were in-
ducing them to pause, when the railway mania
began. Of course, the reader guesses the result.
A friend of Tom's bachelor days, who has been long
wishing to draw him into speculation, comes for-
ward, and total discomfiture is the consequence,
which would have been more natural and no less
certain without the introduction of such a gigantic
fraud on the part of Sir E. Alex. Fortu-
nately, Minnie's settlement and other resources
provide them with a small income, and they find-
more peace and comfort in their retirement than
they had ever done in " Hard-up Hall." In two
points the moral might, we think, have been im-
proved. One is, that after the writer's severe and
just denunciation of the idle life of men of pleasure,
he makes all Tom's embarrassments immediately
follow and result from his marriage and settlement
on his estate. Secondly, although it is hinted at
all through the story, the Denaconvent legacy ee
Minnie's relative at the close is, y t least,
better fortune than generally falls to the lot of
ruined victims to gentility. Still the story teaches
its own lesson very forcibly, and in life-like colours.
The moral is summed up in the words of the lawyer
Audrey, who is describing the state of those who
are striving against wind and tide at Agony Point:
" After putting generosity on short commons,
simple justice dies a natural death, and 'so they
hang on, appearing still very grand and ' genteel,'
but all the time most mean and miserable."

Hurst and Black,ett's Standard Library.
The seventeenth volume of this valuable series is
" Nothing New," by the author of " John Halifax,"
&c, All the productions of this writer hve be=