The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-01-15

OIcoJ. author ~ I~cra'- ChlI' NJ 49,. r,--s
jackson $50. For sale by Taylor & Maury, Wash
ington. ID. C.
There are parts Of this book which are writ
ten in an easy, natural manner, and the Incl
dents in which take strong hold on the read
ers sympathies. The moral intended to be
conveyed, and that which, for the most part, tao,
is conveyed, is good. The authoress thus shows
what she can do, if she but follow out the evil
dent impulses of her feelings But there are
other portions that would need more than a
torchlight to help US to get at the meaning of
| her language, and that appears to be the result
of aiming at something more effective in style.
| If so, it is a sad mistake, and we could not
but pity the ungrammatical constructions into
which this desire Of establishment has often
led her. To quote single example from a
paragraph in one of the earliest pages, where
there is strange intermingling of figures and
illusions
Rowing in an orbit which but exposed her
poverty, from its brilliancy, though seldom en-.
| joying its midday effulgence, she could not fail
to see that the clouds about her setting, if sill
ver-rimmed in the rays reflected, still grew
blacker, and that the struggle she made to
illumine, was but the expiring effect of wick,
from which the oil that fed it was departing.
! Could she have turned from this blaze of Dor
rowed light, and pressed forward in a humber
sphere, gazing on the bright, revolving wheel,
In which whirled her family connections, gilt
teriDg, shining, in silks and gems, she resting
| from her toll, by which she had hoped to earn
a counterfeit for the pageant"
Z Now, what is the meaning of this passage,
in plain English? We have, We think, an ink
ling Of its import, though of this we are by no
means certain but we should consider it quite
3 difficult exercise for any one to parse the
sentences according to the rules of good gram
mar, or to explain them in conformity to the
demands Of true rhetoric. 1t seems to US no
more nor less than fiat nonsense. Were this a
sole instance, it would be of little consequence,
but there are many similar ones. Occurring,
as some of them do, at the beginning of the
| book, the reader is tempted to throw it down
in disgust; and yet the latter half of the volume
is the best part Of it, and this unfortunate ten
dency to write in such style is therefore the
more to be regretted, since the authoress can
| do so well whenever she chooses to be natural
and tell her story in good, clear sentences.
No one can read the book without being
convinced that there is no want Of talent; and
in the delineation of several of the characters
allowing for slight bordering on caricature,
in the case of Keturah and Zebedee Flint-she
exhibits skill. Jeanie is good impersonaton
of filial duty and responsibility to God. Mr.
Miller, stern as he is at times, is, however, well
drawn, and the wife, Mrs. Miller, is felt to be
the heartless creature the suthoress aims to
make her; while Hugh Sherbourne, or Philip
Hamlin, the proper hero of the tale, is fine
representative of a true friend and philanthro-
pist. We somewhat question the fidelity to
nature of the episode of Ralph and Jeanne, and
the incidents mostly seem exaggerated. The
scenes where the authoress contents herself
with the language of true feeling are often ef-
fective, though the work would, in our view,
have been better one with less of the high
wrought situations in some cases unnecessarily
introduced.
We have written what we have done in CEN
sure because of the influence which books
written in style so incongruous exerts on the
young in vitiating the taste, and we dislike to
see what might otherwise have been book Of
much higher value, impaired and rendered Of
comparatively little worth, from its want of an
elegant simplicity and truthful portraiture.