The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-21 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Lady of Giyane. By the Author of "Mar-
garet and her Bridesmaids," &c. 3 vols. Hurst
and Blackett.
The numerous admirers of those fascinating
works, " Woman's Devotion," and " Margaret
and her Bridesmaids," will welcome these volumes,
which are worthy of the gifted author of their pre-
decessors. Yet, although equal in ability, and pos-
ses,ing the same attractive style, it is to be ques-
tioned if this story has the same interest, in
consequence of the peculiarity of the plot. - Lady
Maria is an odious woman, and notwithstanding the
skill with which she is pourtrayed, the passages in
which she appears are necessarily painful, and jar
upon the feelings. Selina, her daughter, is very
well described to us as an instance of what over-
strained sensibility will produce. It is satisfactory
to find her removed from the dominion of her
mother, who had been guilty of such cruel treat-
ment towards her. Uriel, the heroine, is a delight-
ful character, and interests from first to last, as she
is revealed to notice by the vivid light and with the
imps ssioned force of genius. There is afreshness and
novelty in all the incidents concerning her, she was
born at sea in a storm, and might have exclaimed,
in the words of the song—
CI The waves were white, and red the morn,
The noisy hour when I was born,
And never was heard such as outcry wild
As welcomed to life the ocean child."
The . raging tempest was synonymous of Uriel's
.voyage of life, in which she was continually " drift-
ing among the breakers," and in which there were
ity:umerable shoals and quicksands. The old
fashioned, kind hearted Doctor Blaize, who hailed
the advent of the heroine, is one of the most worthy
of the personages here met with. His after-meet-
ing with his beloved charge, is very pleasing, and
most ingeniously arranged. The happy years
" Nellie," as she was familiarly called, spent at
the cottage were a blessing to her. The lull and.
calm refreshed her spirits, and renewed her strength
for the on-coming strife and struggle. Her position
in the house of the lady of Glynue was a strange
one, and nothing but the greatest self-control, sand
the highest endeavours could have cartied her safely
through the work, and conducted that work to a
glorious termination. The author of this novel
has a thorough knowledge of human nature,
which is here and theta made manifest in a striking
manner. Mr. and Mrs. Grant, for instance, aro
admirable specimens of self-sufficiency and bigotry.
They, and they alone, must be in the right, as
if they had received supernatural knowledge, as
if they had beheld celestial visions, or as if the
gates of Paradise themselves could only open at
their touch. S'eiy different were Mr. and Mrs.
Bernard, who were true labourers in their Maa•
tar's vineyard, and who, in their lives and

actions,
"Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way."
The Lady of Glynne has many merits; it is sus•
tained by lofty principle, and rendered attractive
by considerable taleata, while the freedom and
freshness of its style, invest it with a charm and
a grace, and the tone of deep feeling with which
it is pervaded, declares its spirit to be that of
the true and the genuine.