The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-14 00:00:00

LITERATURE.
GODFREY MALVERN. Vol. l.
Miller, London, 1842

Godfrey Malvern—so far as it has yet pro-
ceeded, for we have here only the first volume—
is a pleasant, readable story, whose style is uni-
formly flowing and animated, and whose senti-
ments are such as do the author great credit. It
is an additional recommendation to the narrative,
that its incidents, which are numerous and well
put together, in no one instance clash with pro-
bability, and that the characters, especially that
of the hero, are sustained with spirit and good
sense. The scene of the courtship between Widow
Clarkson and Gregory Gruff, where the former is
anxious to make a deep impression on the latter's
susceptible heart, is full of truthful humour, and
will remind the reader of the famous interviews
in "Tristam Shandy" between Widow Wadman
and my Uncle Toby.

MIDSUMMER EV.O. 3 Vols.
Saunders and Otley, London, 1842.
There is considerable ingenuity evinced in this
fiction, whose leading incidents are so contrived
as to give the reader a very fair idea of the do-
mestic manners and prejudices of Londoners
during the stormy period of the Reformation.
The chief personage—or, at any rate, the one
who will most warmly excite the reader's inte-
rest—is a poor, blind, fatherless girl, by name
Annot Palmer, who is represented at the outset
of the story sitting by the way-side near the
turnpike at Islington, like the lone figure
spoken of in Scripture. Being a regular
attendant on Sundays at the church of
one of the reformed preachers, she is discovered
and attested by the furious Popish Bishop of
London, Dr. Bonner, conveyed to his palace at
Fulham, subjected to a rigid cross-examination as
to the articles of her faith, in the presence of the
Prelate, mid several other Church dignitaries,
and ultimately put to the torture as a heretic
and infidel. Exhausted with pain, she is next
removed to one of the city churches, which. is
used as a prison for refractory Lutherans; but
the place of her confinement being fortunately
discovered by a young man, Harry Markham,
who had been the innocent cause of her arrest,
he resolves on obtaining her release, impelled to
this determination by his affection for a lady of
birth and fortune, Anne Granville, who had long
been a kind friend and patroness of the blind
orphan girl. Markham's attempt is successful,
Annot is liberated by stratagem from her con-
finement, and the story concludes with her de-
parture, in company with her liberator, and
several other persecuted Lutherans,, from Eng-
land for the shores of Germany. The character
of this meek, patient, sweet-natured girl is sus-
tained with great feeling and propriety through-
out; and with a skill, too, and a delicacy that
proves the author to be well read in that " mys-
tery of mysteries," the female heart. Dr. Bonner
is a portrait less felicitously executed; vigour it
possesses, enough and to spare ; but we fear
it is coarse to a degree exceeding the truth of
history. The scenes in the prison in the first
volume, where the high-minded old martyr,
Dr. Maynard, administers the sacrament to
his fellow-prisoners, are admirably coloured;
and the description of the business at Smithfield
has an earnestness and reality about it, that
might almost induce one to believe that it was an
extract from the memoir of some contempo-
rary chronicler who' was an eye-witness of the
terrible spectacle.