The Portland daily press., 1867-12-30
Two Recent American Novels.

TEMPLE House. A Novel BY Ei,z slp
Stoddard, author of "The MorgesonS, Two
Men," etc. New York: G. W. Oarietoh q
Co.
Here is book fol which it is really dlfncuit
to furnish any raison d'efre. What mou'e It's
anthor could have had in writing it is impos-
s;b,o 20 oonceive. That she could have taken
,,o,oura in its production is simply incredible;
thot sbe could have expected to give pleasure
70 those who might read it is out of the ques-
tion; since she is far too acute person to
suppose that such a book could amuse, in
struct or benefit any one. IT she merely wrote
it to display her power it WAS unnecessary, fol
that was already recognized. But beyond al
question the book is powerful. 1t delineate
in very vivid manner a variety Of morbif
diseased and repulsve developments OF hu
manity, developments which it shocks us
believe in, and which we would call lmposslo'
but for the life-like distnctness WIN "nic
they are set before Argus 6ates Is Id
character in the book in whom we are expect
ed to take most interest. He is a widower al
cvnic Now tendency to cynicism whe
united with some refinement, good
and good breeding, is blem:sh certainly in
But Argus Gates is cync of the brutal typ
He is rufian, who swears at his sister an
her little girl, and takes devilish pleasure j
insulting and wounding the woman wit.
whom he is represented to be in love. I'll
latter parsonage, Virginia Brande, is the onl
decent one in the book, and she is the vie
tim of all the others. They weave hatef, >
plot about her by means of which her reput:
ton is destroyed though she is perfectly inn
cent; and after having her name draggt
through the dirt of the streets she is still fuf
Their ill-used by marrying her to the same A.
gus Gates We cannot undertake to give Il
plot of the story; it is q tissue of disagreeabl
from beginning to end. There are passages
it which are fearfully vivid, instance the d.
scription of the storm on the coast when A.
gus and Mat Sutcllffe 60 out and rescue a shiI.
wrecked man, finding him clasped to the CO
bosom of corpse. We would quote it, b,
do not care to give our readers the niehtmar
We merely notice so much of the plot in ordc
to express our establishment that writer pc;
sessing Mrs Stoddard's ability should exerci
it on such revolving themes. The very pow.
of her delineations makes the matter wors
If a painter were to draw for us with maste
~ skill, loatbesome, putrefying corpse, or tt
fostering sores of a leper. he might compel
to acknowledge his power, but he could
make us like the picture. And we are qui;
certain that no reader with a sound al
healthy mind will like the people who are il.
troduced to us in Temple House." Mrs. S,o
dard with her keen insight, her power of sui
tie mental analysis and her mastery of sever
and vigorous English, might be the most faa
cinating as well as the most powerful of OF
female writer's of fiction; but like nearly alt
the rest of them she is infected with the love
morbid. exceptional and unwholesome sui
iects. After reading one of her books we
inclined to echo the request of poor Lea
"Give us an ounce of civet, good apothecar,
to sweeten our imaginations."
Temple House" is for sale by Bailey :
Noyes.