The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-02-02
I'm THE DAYS OF MY YOUTH.

gentler sex Is fond OF describing human life and
character. Between George Eliot and Annie
Thomas in England, and Miss Alcott and Mrs
southworth in the United States, the literary
space is wiue, but 1t is abundantly inhabited For
the present we confine ourself to English ground,
and we are bound to say that it has yielded
among female novests, one extraordinary and
several admirable specimens. 1t is scarcely nee
essary to add that under the first head comes the
author OF "Mlddemarch," or that under
the second are to be ranked Miss Mulock,
Mrs. Ophant, the author OF "Doctor jacob"
Miss Amelia B. Edwards and possibly one or
two Others We have omitted mention OF Mrs.
Henry Wood and Miss Braddon, not because they
are without merit, but because the conditions to
which they have deemed 1t expedient TO submit
have forced upon them an extraordinary amount
OF labor and prevented their doing much that Is
thoroughly good. Their strength has become dis
sipated over thirty novels instead OF being con-
centrated upon three. Miss Amelia b. Edwards,
whose present volume we propose to discuss, has
either been more wise or has been placed amid
happier conditions which did not necessitate such
unhealthy stimulus. She has written much more
slowly than the two prolific nOvelists to whom we
have Just REFERRED but her average Is much better
than theirs and her novels deserve higher rank as
works OF literary art. 'In the Days OF MY YOuth''
is novel written autobiOgraphically, and describes
the adventures and experiences OF a young man,
who, when scarcely more than boy. is thrown
alone amid the pleasures and temptations Of
Partisan life. The subject Is a tempting one,
though perhaps somewhat strange for woman
to adopt. Any equivocality, however, that it
might possess Is removed by the delicacy OF the
authors treatment-a delicacy that is full OF won-
anliness or course it 10 impossible to believe that
Miss Edwards has obtained all her Information at
first hand. The average healthy mind, with per-
haps fibre OF vulgarity running through IT, &C.
cepts without hesitation anecdotes which repre-
sent Nine. Dudevant wearing male costume during
her early literary life and gathering in that
guise the observations Of which she subse-
quently made such powerful use in her
masculine creations But what the aver
age mind accepts as something that was
to have been expected in French woman, and
particularly in French authoress, it shirks from
when an English nationality is substituted. In
sympathy with the cOmmon idea, therefore, we
should be forced into the belief that certain scenes
and experiences in Miss Edwards novel, as, Tor
instance, the relations OF Basil Arbuthhot to jose
phlne the sette his visits to her in the Rue Aubry
lie Boucher, his familiarity with the Bohemian
members of the Society OF Les Chicards, and with
numerous little ms and outs OF Partisan life, were
revealed to Miss Edwards rather through the
rations of others than from personal inspection.
Mrs. Gaskell once questioned Charlotte Bronte
as to her method OF going to work when,
in the course OF constructing novel, she
found it necessary to describe something
she had never seen or experienced and
which present circumstances debarred her
from seeing or experiencing. Miss BrOnte replied
that she thought the matter out until appropriate
representation Of the subject, or a represen tatiOn
that seemed to her to be appropriate, was evolved
The explanation had to be satisfactory; for it was
the only one Miss Bronte had to give But it does
not seem to account for the truthlulness of her
descriptions Of certain characters ana phases OF
feeling which nothing in her life intimates had
come within her personal experience, except upon
the principle that consciousness contains the raw
material for literary and artistic manufacture and
that people OF exceptional temperament have
wonderful gift OF getting at the right thing
though the process Of lntrospection. We do not
know whether MISS Edwards has any solution
like this to offer. She appears to be very much at
home with places with which few women who have
much respect for conventiOnalisms, and that fas-
tidiOus circumspection which 1t entails, would con-
| less familiarity, and she Is perfectly unembar-
raised with one or two classes Of people who
! dwell outside the circle OF propriety and bring
with them a flavor that is Enthusiastically Bohe-
milan. Yet there is not word or an intimation In
her book which chastity itself might not read, and
rejecting much OF the sensuOus and something of
the sensual side Of Partisan life, without swerving
from the delicate standpoint which every pure and
refined woman would wish 20 be regarded as main
tanning.
To come to the story, however Basil Arbuthnot's
father is a misanthropic widower and leads the
life of a recluse physician in SaXonh0lme, an OBJ.
scure English hamlet. In this home the boy Is
educated until he Is about twenty when he Is sent
to Paris to study medicine under DR.. Cheron,
distinguished surgeon. Previously to this, how
ever. when about sixteen years of age, he has an
experience, the bearing OF which upon the story
comes to light only in the last chapter. French
magician, named N. lie Chevalier Armand Proud
hne, visits SaxonhOlme, and gives o public per.
Torrance in one OF the rooms OF the hotel. During
the performance he borrOws Basil's watch
to perform some trick with 1t, but sud-
denly succumbs to illness from which
he is very evidently suffering, and soon after
expires, Notwithstanding all that Is done to save
him. The watch is not found upon his person and
remains undiscovered. At Paris Basil accidentally
makes the acquaintance Of Captain Oscar Dali
rymple, many years older than himself. Captain
Dalrympe takes a fancy to him. and gratides
that fancy by initiating him in Paris This in
cludes an acquantanceship with fine ladies and
griSettes, actresses and artists and the design of
the reader that she knows Paris in its heights and
depths quite as well as the most accomplished
courier. We have picnics up the Seine, firta-
lions between grtSettes and commits uoyageurs, q
visit to the salons Of Nine. Rachel and Nine. Son.
| tag, grOg du vin at the Society OF Les Chicards
dinners at the Maison Doree evening parties
! in the QUARTER Latin, an amour with
q grisette ana an affair OF the heart
with fashionable lady, all of them very
cleverly described and mingled with converse
ton that is generally smart and select-if it never
rises into the region or purely intellectual wit or
profound and original thought it never sinks into
that OF vacuity and commonplace, Miss Edwards
is not leader in fiction. She possesses none of
those grand structural capacities which are in
Guided in the genius Of the great novel writer Her
works are not expOnents OF the profound and
sacred experiences OF the heart. Her treatment OF
such experiences indicates rather q thorough &C.
quaintance with the manner In which they are
ba nded nv magters than the capabtv or In ndlip ~