The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1870-11-10
BOOK notice..

ROBERT FALCONER, 4 novel, by GEO. MAC
DONALD. LoRINGs.
For the ordinary novel reader who de-
lights in the coarse sensatiOnalism OF Miss
Braddons :. Ouida" and iuy Living
stone" the extraordinary work whose title
is above will have small charm; for those
wise readers of fiction who recognize that
the true function of the novelist is the dis
cussion Of the life-problems Of the age, it
will be found to have more interest. Mr..
Macdonald is Scotchman, who during the
last ten years has been gaining an English
reputation, that now, somewhat tardily,
reaches the American public. His photo
graph shows US man of middle age-study
bent and thought worn, with the wild beard
and fixed gaze of q prophet, as in some sort
he is. Too earnest and too religious for the
modern transatlantic pulpit, he was COM
PEELED to cast aside the hnmpering folds Of
the clerical gown, and was driven BY hard,
We, wise and kindly fate, into the literary
arena. An early volume of poems, marked
by some sweetness Of vesi6cation and by
much noble aspiration, found bu; small
circle of readers \ novel, the scene Of
which is laid in Scotland, entitled "David
Elginbrod,' first revealed his singular abili-
ties as writer Of fiction. Four or FIVE
other volumes speedily followed from a pen
that has proved as prolific as it is powerful.
"Robert Falconer" is at once the latest and
creates; work of this autl.or. 1t is the history
of the mental, moral and religious develop
ment of :. Scotch student. The hero fronts,
and. in fashion of his own, masters the
deep problems Of faith, and doubt, and duty,
which in some form visit all souls, and have
as deep and moving interest for thoughtful
men az oft told tales of love. Readers will have
their own opinions of the value of Mr.. Mac
donald s.,proposeds solutions of these problems,
but even when they may disagree with his
methods will own their sincerity and will
find some rays OF light at least lent by them.
q. W. Curtis, in a recent Boston lecture, re-
marked that the age of Victoria has proved
to British fiction what the golden age Of
Elizabeth was to the British drama, and that
the modern novel, unlike the Elizabethan
plan, has been eminently serviceable to
morality. In the bright galaxy from which
Thackeray and Dickens have been removed,
but in which Geo. Eliot" Reade and Col.
Inns still shine, Geo. Macdonald holds fail
and honorable place. Shining perhaps will
less dazzling lustre than is given to some OF
his companionable stars he possesses and diff
fuses a mellow ligh, that beauties earth's
common, humble. homely things, and that
cheers the dusty vet flower-fringed way:
wherein men daily walk. Possibly We shall
best make ineligible our estimate of Mr..
Macdonald's genius If VIC name him the
Wordsworth of modern fiction. Like the
author of the Excursion" he loves to en-
plov himself with affairs and men counted by
the common Judgment mean and unheroic;
like him too ne is occupied more with innel
meanings than with outer meanings NJ
one, we are sure, will read this last work o!
} his without consciousness of cheerful menta
help nor will any man, having once reac
it, fail in those hours when wise books arc
found the best Of friends, to turn again and
again to pages that tell Of the undyins
springs OF goodness that lie beneath the cr,ls
of self in every heart, and that tell too of thu
untai,ing fountain whence such springs rise
AMI are fed