Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-12-23


with her earlier ones, have noticed a gradual
change in their tone. There is in the later
ones depth of womanliness, to which no other
female novelist has attained.
Thereby hangs a bit of romance which is
worth telling. Six or eight years since Miss
Mulnck some years past the bloom of youth,
CHANGED to he in country lodgings. Among
the other guests was man considerably her
junior, who was disabled by a severe accident.
Somehow the care of the invalid seemed east
upon her. He formed n strong attachment to
his nnrse and friend, and proposed for her hand.
They were married, and Miss Mulocll became
Mrs. Craik. 1t is enough to say that no mar
riage was ever more suspicious. To Mrs Mu-
lock- Craib's late experience as wife and mother,
we are indebted for some of the most charming
stories in the language. Her latest tale, "llan-
nah" presents an example Of the perfect purity
of her writings 1t turns upon deep love grow
ing up between woman past middle life and
the widowed husband Of her dead sister. The
man is a clergyman, and by the English law,
ecclesiastical and civil a marriage between per
sons thus connected isprohibited. Any conuec-
ton between them is legally nccstuous and any
children born 10 them are illeaitimate. Strenu-
Gus efforts have been,made to abrogate this law;
but it stll stands. The story Of the gradual
growth of the love between this woman and
man, growing at first from her love for his in
FAINT child, is beautifully depicted. When the
story was begun presume the writer believed
| that before il came TO an end the English law
would be changed, and that the pure lovers could
be hOnoraby welded at home. But as il was,
| the law still STOOD and she had TO send them TO
France where there exists no legal obstacle to
such an union BY the eXigency of facts the
close of the story is not, from an artistic point
of view wholly satisfactory But throughout
one can not fail to see how purely the whole
| story has been conceived aud executed. Only
| imagine what a novelist Of the Braddon school
would have made of such plot.
| This perfect purity characterizes every work
| of Mrs. Mulock -Crak. From first TO last there
| is no line which, dying, she could wish to blot.
| Taking all things into view, | consider her our
greatest female novelist. Two of Charlotte
Brontes, and two OF Marian Evans-Lewes
George Elliott are perhaps better than any one
of those of Dinah Mulock Had the life o.
Charlotte Bronte, as Mrs. Nichols, have been
prolonged a few years, we might perhaps have
had a novel, the like of which has not been
written, aud now nay never come TO be writ
ten. OF other great novels which ought to have
been written, and never were or can be, the
greatest SHOULD have been one by Thackeray,
whereof George Warrington should have been
the hero. As it stands, taking all things into
account, ! know no living writer OF fiction
(Wikie Collins not eXceped) who can out
rank Dinah MulOcl-Craik.
Ii is hard 10 say from the perusal of Il part,
what will be a great book. But as far as |
can judge from the reading of one volume out
OF three or four, which will be required TO com
plete the work. Lanfrey's history of Napoleon
l. will take rank among the first historical works
of the age Lanlrey is a republican Of the old
style. In his view the French revolution Of
1898 was an uprising Of the right against the
wrong; and Napoleon was the man who finally
| turned that movement in the wrong direction
To one who cares to compare one thing with
| another, it is worth while TO place side by side
the Napoleon of NJ. Lanlrey and that Of Mr.
John 5. G. Abbott Llnfrey's first volume
closes with the battle of Marengo, where Ma
poleon won; but where he ought TO have lost.
In every great action in which he engaged,
whether successful or unsuccessful Waterloo
being no exception, he ought, by all fairicalcu-
ation Of force on the field, to have been sue
cessful, Still, Marengo, won it was by ac-
cident, was the stepping stone to Napoleon'S rs
cent TO greatness. If the succeeding volumes
of Lanlrey's work fulfill the promise Of the
first, it will stand as the authentic life of the
great emperor.
A good title goes far 10 make the success of
book. One of the luckiest titles was that given
by Edward A. Pollard to his history of our late
civil war A poorer book, think, was never
| written; but its title, "lhe Lost Cause" was in
| itself worth small fortune. He has just finish
ed a book, which | suppose will soon appear
| He calls il "The Lost Curse" the ''curse' be-
ing nothing less than the institution of slavery
Ii any one wants to see how much dirt man
can eat in the way of swallowing bis own words,
| recommend him to read Poliard's Lost
| Curse
have Just read the MS. of history of Nor
monism, by Mr. Stenhouse, whose name turns
| up in most accounts of Utah. He may he styled
an ex-Mormon. | suppose the book will soon
appear. Those who have formed Acknowledgement
respecting Joseph Smith from what has been
usually accepted, Will most likely be surprised
to learn that the Mormon prophet was man of
extraordinary intellectual power, and morally
much better than men have thought
| But all this is not the lay sermon on Christ
mas, with which | set out The object of the
sermon was to have been to point out the great
distance between the parlor and the kitchen,
/ IL. IL