The New York herald., 1875-08-20
MODERN BRITISH LIFE.
Anthony TrollOpe's Latest English
J Society Novel
DISsECTING SOCIAL TUMORS.
WHY the Work Is COldly Received in
Great Britain.
"a BOOK OF BAD CHARACTERS,

tins WAY We LIVE Now A novel BY Anthony Troll
lope New York: Harper Brothers
We are not surprised that Anthony rrollopes latest
Inovel should be coldy received by the English public
The work processes TO give in the coors Of ncton
true picture Of English social life at the present day and
ahe artist has been at no pains please aater his
sitters Trollope is never idealisc in his work He
mot merely inclnes 70 realism in his stories and his
characters but paints people and things exactly as ne
Gads them with remorseless adhesion 20 truth Ihere
b this grand difference between his work and that OF
Dickens that Dickens drew from his Imagination, while
Hrolope draws from observation II IS admitted by
hnglish critics that the characters Of his novels
ARE the characters Of English society that men and
ASomen in real English life act and talk exactly
s they do in his novels which are dctons only in plot;
hhat every day one meets in London drawing rooms
ueople who seem have stepped out Of his pages. If
IA foreigner wants become acquainted with real Eng
hsh life through the medium Of books he must not turn
10 the pages OF Dickens Reade wlkie Collins but to
hnose Of Anthony TroHope. This the unanimous tes-
himony OF English critics. and It would be unbecoming
kn Americans not to give it credence.
COMPANY.
This being the case it is not at all surprising that
Gngsh critics should receive The Way We Live Now'
with very i'll temper They do deny that the story
ss exceedingly anything short Of the
very best be has ever done but they complain of the
Hepulsively disagreeabe society which the author
INTRODUCES his readers. 1t is in truth a most
Hepulsive picture which he draws There is hardly
Jen agreeable character in the novel, hardly scene
(which gives pure or noble pleasure The whole
dhere of the book is freighted with sordidness and
knavery oppressive from the lack of contrast Even
hhe of the story are unpleasant, with the ex-
cepton Of the heroine, Hetta Carbury who is good
and amiable, though a triAe nspid; and when the
neader the closing chapter he finds that the
Ny,od had tubic has hef tha
characters whose acquaintance he has made exctes
neither sympathy pleasure He is simply indder-
kent Even the wickedGess with which the story
bounds awakens loathng and disgust rather than in
dgnation. One cannot be indignant with moral rep
ties who simply act out their own inherent
baseness, without struggle with a higher
nature. If Ruskin's rule applied 'The
hWay We Live Now"-to read book which
Noes not give noble frlends-Trollopes latest novel
would lie uncaed for on the booksellers shelves 1t
pnust be pronounced the most successful picture
drawn Of human basoness and depravty. Nearly all
khe male characters fulfil Thackerays definition of
fsnob, by ''meanly desiring things too corrupt
pnd base 10 rise TO audaclous crime"
CRIMINAL QUEENS
Let take closer glance some Of the principal
figures this remarkable novel At the outset we
introduced to Lady Carbury literary charlatan who
Is engaged, when the curtain rises, writing familiar
1etters the editors Of certain papers which she
tributes articles and sketches Lady Carbury just
publishing a book on 'Criminal Queens" for
which she to wheede favorable notices
out Of her editor friends-a species of an
moyance from which editors on this side of the
Atlantic not altogether free Her life had been
OF trial and disappointment. Married, when lovely
and penRiess girl of eighteen, Of forty -four,
soldier who had achieved fame in India, she had
never known that Of love which poets describe
md which young people generally desire experience
Her husband the time of his marriage ''red-
faced stout bald, very choeric generous in money,
suspicious in temper, and intelligent" There
nothing mean about him He had his attractive quail
ties He passionate mperouss and even cruel;
but during the first years Of their married life he
never jealous In later years he drank too much,
would sometimes strike his wife in ft Of pssson and
at length became jealous, without cause, Of for
whom he had formed friendship HIS insane
fury drove her from his house for a time
reconciliation effected and she remained the mis-
tress of his house until he died Left with two chill
dren 10 for, and only moderate income, Lady
Carbury fell to dabbling in literature She by
fure clever woman. "she could write after glib,
commonplace, sprighty fashion, and had already
quired the knack of spreading all she very thin
30 that it might cover surface She had
bition to write good book, but painfully anxious
% write book that the critics should say good
in certain Lady Carbury was unselfsh Her
great was to make money for her graceess son, a
handsome disspated young fellow, who through
his property within few years after his athers DEATH
got deeply into debt lived his mother and sister and
addicted 10 every kind of vice which is expected OF
young gentleman of rank The sister had been taught
early in life 'that every vice might be forgiven in a
man and in a son, though every virtue expected
from woman and especially from daughter.
She amented brothers. evil conduct IL affected
him, but she pardoned it altogether affected her
fseL That all her interests in life should be
made subservient to him was natural TO her,
and when she found that her little comforts
were discontinued and her moderate expenses
curailed because he, having eaten up all
THAT his own, eating up also all that was
his mothers, she complained Henrietta had
been taught TO think that that rank Of life in
which she had been born always did eat up every.
thing" All the plans OF mother and daughter for Sir
Felix come TO naught Their schemes TO marry him to
this and that heiress fail He sinks lower and lower in
The slough Of mean vices becoming an object Of
tempt among his base associates, and at last
vsnishes from sight without friend to pity him Lady
Carbury ends after Short and unsuccessful literary
career by marrying editor when she naturally gives
mp writing for a severe course Of matrimony
THE HERO
Like Mr.. Thackery's "vany Fair, this book is GER.
tainly novel without hero but II that distinction
can properly belong any Of the male characters We
suppose it must be accorded to Paul Montague, who
arres Miss Carbury at the close Of the third volume
The parents Of this young gentleman dead before tn
story opens English the father abarrister having
accumulated small fortune Of thousand pounds
which he leaves TO his Paul Oxford and
also intended for the Bar; but college be develops
talent for getting into rows and is rustcated so that
the plan for making lawyer Of him unsuccessful
AT the age Of twenty he takes himself and bis six
thousand pounds out 10 California whittier uncle Of
his had emigrated great many years before Here he
Joins his uncle in business, which Is the carrying
on Of a large farm, producing great quantities
OF wool and wheat and fruit Al the end OF three
years he discovers that he does not like farming
returns England but is altogether unable get pos
....ion ~ hia nnnnu which he has invnsLad N the