The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-11-16

New York: Harper s. Bros. Charleston:
John Russell.
The days of the Minerva Press have returned
pnon the land, and 1.-THE Vivian Romance" Is
the gorgeous herald of the restored dynasty.
Henceforth we will laugh at probability, and
utterly scout the musty old unities Of time,
nlace and circumstance Onr hero shall be
here to-day, and at the Aptipodes tomorrow -
heading Greek pirates in the Egean to-day,
and tomorrow capering nimblJ In a lady's
chamber to the lasclrious blessings OF lutte.
His coat shall be of ''violet velvet, his waist
coat of brocaded silk, with gold buttons,
and in each button diamond; his trousers of
a lavender cloth.,":, Round his neck he shall
wear ia cravat Of wondrous lace, and ruffies
..of the samen shall hide ''the smallest and
..wbites. hand in the world" He shall have
"long, bright yellow hair, curling over his
shoulders, with silken Vandyck beard to
.match, and the softest of golden mustaches.
His eyes shall be "large, as blue as steel, as
"keen as q Toledo rapier." He shall smoke
cigarettes and read Alfred de Musset. he
shall have diamonds and rubies and things
.san awful lot". He shall write erratic lays,
.switty, wicked stories, in octave rhyme"
mingled with s'passionate lyrics and llrid
.stronies." He shall "differ from Pope, opin-
sing that the proper study of mankind is
"wumen;" and shall. therefore, carry of Greek
pirls in tsshort-sleeved saffron vests" from
Egean isles, and hirt with rustic beauties in
woods and caverns. He shall turn highway
robber for his own amusement, and shall thus
reply to carpiag critics who 'objeet to the
..wbimsical fantasies of an effervescent mind
-sdost thou think, because thou art vlrtuous,
"there shall be no more cakes and ale And,
f" because thou art solemn apd stupid, preferr-
ssine small-beer to all other liquids, shall there
.henceforth be no efervescence Of cham
"'pagne?" And thus triumphantly reiuting all
calumnies, he shall glide gracefully of the
stage in blaze OF colored splendor, and close
the gorgeous Spectacular drama" with
"amorous fantasies among the pale red
'soleander blooms" of lovely Genoa.
: Mr. Mortimer Colllns's strong point is
ALTERATION. We may sum up "Ihe Vivian
ssRonance" in sentence made up from his
own vocabulary, thus: valentine Vivian,
"volatile, versatile, vlvacious, vestured IN vio-
slet velvet, vi1a voluptuously and villanously."
Lady Eve. one of the numerous heroines, is
s'little and llssome, fluent and flexile.' Farmer
Ashow Is "a macilent man." and the TALK OF
ssparson, policeman and poet" at dinner table
is sYewd and laxn The story is a mass OF alb
surdlties; and yet, In spite OF all this, the book
really valuable as curiosity of literature, IL
also very amusing and .entertalnng-full' OF
clever. though disJointed talk, and in some of
its ''lur!d ironies" showing much acute per-
ception. Here are few epigrams, taken at
random, which strike us as very happy:
San Anglican parson, II he sees a stranger
within his precincts, gets out of his way; a
priest of the Roman communion does Just the
reverse
"Vivian had theory to the effect that i, you
fllrt with woman you will soon find her Out y
'sThe whole duty of man, In these times,
may be described as reverence to himself and
irreverence to everybody else."
"'Know thyself' is an absurd old maxim;
the thing can't be done; why try Believe
in thyselt, Oman, and, on no account, believe
in anybody else"
Mr.. Collins is somewhat famous as the ALL
thor of o novel called "Swcet Anne Page"
which has never been reprinted in this coun-
try, but where the Esoteric mysteries of remi-
nine paraphernalia were elaborately discussed,
to the great delight and scandal of the British
public His present book has no such dubious
interest, but 1t will probably be quite as widely
read, and will be popular with many in spite
of, and with more because OF, its eXtravaSant
sensationalism.
THE GALAXY.
The principal contents o the December
number are: My Friend the Feudal Baron, an
interesting sketch of Life IN Silesia; Chapter
of "reminiscences by Thurlow Weed; Inter-
national Copyright by Charles Aslor Brlsted;
Shakespeare as Plaglarlst by Abby Sage
(Maciarland) Richardson. Lady Judith Is
steadily soporilc, and the heroes of Overland
are not yet ont of the W lderness. Mark
Twain gives chapter OF sepulchral fun. Drift
Wood and Current Literature are interesting.