The Placer herald., 1857-01-10
From the Westminster Review.
Silly Novels by Lady Novelists.

SILLY Novels by Lady Noveists are a
genus with many species, determined by the
particular quality of Stiffness that predom-
mates in then-the frothy, the prosy, the
pious or the pedantc But it is a mixture
of all these-a composite order Of feminine
tatuity, that produces the largest class Of
such novels which we shall distinguish as the
miad-ond millinery species. The heroine
is usually an heiress, probably a peeress in
her own right, with perhaps a vicious baron
ct, an aniabe duke, aud an irresistible youn-
ger son Of a marquis as lovers in the fore
ground, a clergyman and poet signing for
her in the middle distance, and a crowd Of
underlined adorers dimily indicated beyond.
Her eyes and her wit are both dazzling; her
nose and her morals alike free from any ten
dency to irregularity; she has a superb con-
trdlto and superb intellect; she is perfectly
well dressed and perfectly religious; she dan
ces like slyph, and reads the Bible in the
original tongues. Or it may be that the
heroine is not an heiress-that rank and
wealth are the only things i'll which she is
deficient; but she infalHbly gets into high So
ciety, she has the triumph Of refusing many
matches and securing the best, and she wears
some family jewels or other as sort of
crown of righteousness at the end. Rakish
men either bite their lips in impotent con
fusion at her repartees, or are touched to
pentence by her reproots, which, on appro-
pirate occasions rise to a lofty strain Of
rhetoric; indeed, there is general propen-
sitv in her to make speeches, and to raph-
sodize at some length when she retires to
her bedroom. In her record conversation
she is amazingly eloquent and unrecorded
derstood to have a depth ofinsight that looks
through and through the shallow theories of
philosophers, and her superior instincts are
sort of dial by which men have only to set
their clocks and watches, and all will 90
well. The men play very subordinate part
by her side. You are consoled now and
then by hint that have affairs, which keeps
you in mind that the working day business
of the world is somehow being carried on,
but ostensibly the final cause of their exis-
tence is that they may accompany the hero
inc on her starring" expedition through
life. They see her at ball, and are dazzled;
at a hower-show, and they are fascinated;
on a riding excursion, and they are witched
by her noble horsemanshp; at church, and
they are awed by the sweet solemnity of her
demeanour She is the ideal women in
feelings, faculties, and 1ounces. For all this,
she as often as not marries the wrong person
to begin with, and she suffers terribly from
the plots and intrigues of the vicious baronet;
but even death has soft place in his heart
for such a paragon, and remedies all mis-
takes for her just at the right moment.
The vicious baronet is sure to be killed in
duel, and the tedious husband dies in his
bed requesting his wife, as particular favor
to him, to marry the man she loves best, and
having already dispatched a note to the lover
informing him Of the comparable arrange
ment. Before matters arrive at this deslra-
bic issue our feelings are tried by seeing the
noble, lovely, and gifted heroine pass through
many, mauyais moments, but we have the
satisfaction of knowing that her sorrows
are wept into embroidered pocket t-handker-
chiefs, that her fainting form recines on the
very best upholstery, and that whatever vic
issitudes she may undergo, from being dash
ed out of her carriage to having her
head shaved in fever, she comes out of
them all with a complexion more blooming
and looks more redundant than ever.
We may remark, by the way, that we
have been relieved from a serious scruple
By discovering that silly novels by lady nov