The Portland daily press., 1867-12-30
CLAUDIA. By Amanda NJ. Douglass, authc
of I'm Trust" Stephen Dane" etc. Boston:
Lee & Shepard.

The two former novels of Miss Dougla
have met with very favorable reception fro
the public, and have placed her in an enviab
rank among the story writer's of the day. 81
Trust was pleasing domestic story, better
many respects than the English novel 9Th
Head of the Family" on which it was appa1 g.,
emily modelled. stephen Dane" her secon
effort was a narke improvement on the first.
1t showed a good deal Of dramatic power an'
an insight into the more secret workings 1
the heart and conscience quite remarkable
There was simplicity about it, too, an alb
sence of all straining after extraordinary effe,
which added to its force, and led us to expect
much of the writer.
We wish we might say that this expectation
is realized in The book before us. But "Clar
dia" does not seem to us likely to add much
the reputation of its author. 1t is sentimental.
in the extreme, and it is not very NATURAL
The burthen of it is the ByronIc strain. Man d
love is of mans life thing apart; tits woman
whole experience" &C., the idea of love bein ,
strictly limited to one sense. The theory il
that woman who has been unluckyin a low
venture b nothing more to do in this worl
speedily as she can. The only alternative to
this course is to drag out desolate, starved
and frozen existence, growing thin and sour in
the envious contemplation of other people
happiness, or hiding broken heart under til :
sickiy mask OF smiles. This is not precisely
the situation" in Miss Douglass's novel; Blu
we are given to understand that it would have
been had not Providence kindly sent the hero
inc another lover. This whole view of the
problem of life is one from which we dissent
IN toto We are sick of this sentimental whin-
ing about the peculiar, inevitable doom of
woman, "to make idols and to find them clay"
andso on. 1t is all folly, and most pernicious
folly at that. 1t may be true that woman
requires the support of love more than man,
but it is not true that there is only one relation
in which she can find that support and happ:-
ness. And if she sometimes makes idols and
is disappointed to find them clay, are there not
plenty of men who have had similar expert
ence? Are there no men with hungry, unsat-
isfied hearts, with disappointed hopes and I'M
realized ideals? We had supposed these things
were part OF the common lot OF humanity,
and not among the special miseries of the fe-
male sex.
But our objection to " Claudia" is not alone
that it is sentimental but that it is not natural
The people IN it are not real people, they do
not act in any natural manner Claudia as
sumes the dress and character of a man, and
we are told this WIS to screen her sister Rose,
who has become the mother of child The
idea is preposterous. The sisters are in
strange place and under an assumed name, and
it was Just as easy to call Rose a widow as
wife. The one lie would do as well as the 9TH
er, and be much more easily carried out. Then
the manner of the narrative is full of at
fectations. When Rose, frantic with sham,
jealousy and despair PUSHES to the lake to
drown herself she talks in pretty poetic way
about having "emptied the magical goblet of
existence" as if people who can relieve their
minds with that kind of fancies ever did
drown themselves.
1t will be seen that the faults of Miss Doug
lass book are in marked contrast to those
which are to be found in Mrs. Stoddaru's
There is similar contrast in their style. Mrs.
StoddaTd writes with severe simplicity,
scornful disregard of all the prettinesses of or
nament. Miss Douglass shows a disposition
to run into the intense and declamatory man
ner. and to reach after unusual words when
common ones would do better. She has mac
curacies of description, too, which are unpar-
donabe, such as introducing the hum of bees,
the chirp Of insects, and the tremulous war
BILE of birds into her description of an Indian
summer sunset In another place where a
party have gone out on a pond to gather water
lilies she talks of the sea-,ceeds brushing the
PROV of their boat! But with all their points
of difference the books are both open to the
same objection They are morbid; they paint
no healthy, normal, natural life. We wish we
might say that in this respect they are excep-
tional among the productions of our popular
fiction writers, but unfortunately they belong
to class which is more common and numer-
GUS than any other.
For sale by Short s. Loring