The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1865-12-09
hook Notices.


DO set down 40 u plagiarism whilst it has suffi-
cent merit in itself to make it an exceedingly in
feresting novel.
Tho heroine, Lady Haughton, is copy OF Lady
Dedlock as positively as any ono thing can be the
copy Of another. Lady Dedlock is magnificently
beautiful, cold and haughty-so is Lady Haugh-
ton, Lady Dedlock does not love her husband as
a woman should love the man to whom she is
linked in the bonds of matrimony- neither does
Lady Haughton. DICKENS creation has secret
from her husband-so has our heroine. Lady
Dedlock's secret is discovered-so is Eady Haugh-
toms. Sir'Leicester Dodlock QLady Dedlock's hus-
6andD il tho quintescence Of noblcnoss and mag
nanimity-Sir Eyerard Haughton tLady Haugh-
toms husband), is erdctly the same. Sir Leicester
exhibits his love and magnanimity to the greatest
extent when tho secret is discovered, and when
tho reader would look for man in his position to
act quite differently Sir Everard Haughton acts
identically the same. Lady Dedlock has French
maid Mademoisello Hortcnsc, who desplses her
mistress, and plots her ruin. Lady Haughton
has q French maid, Mademoiselle Felice, who
does precisely the g" 3 thing.
All this has the APP 1arance of plagiarism, but
1t is not and for these reasons; in tho first place,
the imitation is too palpable to be plagiarism No
one in their sano senses would select the greatest
read, to plagiarize from. Our author, therefore,
Initiated with tho knowledge that, as evory one
who rends her book must be familiar with DICK
EMS, and she simply submits to them her copy as
an artist, who paints picture from model, the
work of a master hand. Another reason is the
one given by that great goniSs and critic, EDGAR
A. Poe, who contcndcd that where many points
of similarity would suggest plagiarism, cores
Of nf liasin ri
relievo'the author from the imputation. In JUS
lice, then, to fair authoress, let us give these
points. Lady Dedock's secret is guilty one
Lady Haughton had always been as pure as n
woman can be. Lady DedIock had q child of her
own which her sister had taken caro- of. Lady
Haughton took care Of her dead sisters child, and
kept the secret because she had made an oath to
the dying mother to save her reputation. After
the secret was out, Lady Dedlock fled her home,
and died ere she could bo found by Mr.. Bucket,
tho Detective, and Esther Summerson, her daugh-
ter. Lady Haughton was taken back to her hus-
bands arms, learned to lovo him, and became
good wife The book is certainly, however, re-
markabc one, and the moro SO because it is ex-
ceedingly interesting even to one who has read
Bleak House dozea times. The diction is pure,
the tale well told, and the style admirable in its
simplicity.
The authoress, however, is too prone to initiate
The story TINT Sir Everard tells his wife about
the bracelet smacks too much of Othello and the
handkerchief. Ladies always forget themselves in
books when they give enthusiastic descriptions Of
The beauty of the male characters. A man likes
to read of woman's beauty, and woman may
derive pleasure from description Of a handsome
man, but the latter is always nauseating to a male
reader In speaking Of Mr., Hamilton, a good-for-
nothing scamp, after minute description of his
t'majestic beauty" our authoress says: But the
face-oh the untold, the indescribable beauty of
that pale, calm face" We cannot fancy this sort
of thing VIC DO not like to hear this style OF Ian.
guage applied to a man.
To sum up, we think the book, with all it's per-
fectiops and "imporfections on it's head" is capi-
tai, and wo have no doubt that Mrs. Tor MISSY
DOWNING is destined to take conspicuous stand
amongthe first writer's of the day. ..
THE IRvNoroN STORIES. By NJ. E. Dodge. James oKane
Publisher, New York.
This little volume is n story book for children,
and wo con say of it honestly and without the
slightest hesitation, it is ono Of the best wo have
seen TOR many years. Few persons can appreciate
the exceeding difficulty of writing o book of this
kind. The author is apt to fall into one of the
extremes-he will either produce work above
HHO oi younger clluuron, or TOO
simple for those Of q moro advanced age. TO hit
the happy medium, it is necessary to write story
which can be understood by child of nine or ten,
and that at the Same time can be read with inter-
est by child of fifteen or sixteen, Or in fact by
an adult. Even by this difficult standard the CIR
vington Stories" are complete success The
critic, before reading the book, handed it to some
intelligent little ones, aged nine and ten. The
little ones read them all, understood them, and
expressed themselves delighted. The critic then
read thom and found them rather interesting to
himself The little critics found one fault with
the book One of them remarked Of 'sThe Drum
mer Boy" "That is pretty story, but don't like
1T because it has much about the s'rebes.n We
endorse the sentiment. 1t is not in human ma
ture, nor in common sense, to expect that our
children should take pleasure in reading stories in
which their fathers arc abused and often belied.
The Drummer Boy is the only war story in the
DO k which, 80 far as Southern children are con-
cerned; would have been improved by its omission.
ISN'T HE MAN AND BROTHER "A correspon-
dent Of the Worcester (Mass) transcript ia en-
gagged in teaching adult negroes at Norfolk, Va.
He states that though he has labored assiduously
for MANY months, he finds great difficulty in max
ing progro1s. We quote passage from the letter.
which will giyo an idea OF the truthfulness OF his
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