Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-11-11
mopsRH INSTANCE.
4 RoreI ~ WiIaam D. Howels.

position, moral, religious or polit- |
zeal, apart from the proper junction
of the novelist, that Of telling a
story and telling it well. Thus we
have had in old times Protestant
and Catholic novels, Wing and To-
ry, and in later days Northern and
Southern, evangelical and ritual
istic novels; even Dickens wrote
English poor laws, Nicholas Nick
leby to denounce the Yorkshire
schools. And Charles Reade hardly
ever planned II story without in
tending an onslaught upon some
rampant abuse of his day. Nearly
all of these would have been better
books if their authors had concen-
trated their efforts upon the devel-
Opment of their stories and the de-
lineatiOn of character, leaving pO-
litical and religious controversy
alone.
Spite of this general condemna-
ton, we have now before us a novel
evidently written dcec intention,
which is not only an exceptionally
good one, but whose chief merit is
the manner in which it treats the
great question with which it is &C.
cupied, manly, the monstrOus evil
OF the licentious divorce laws of
New England and some of the
Western States.
A few words will explain this APP
parent inconsistency. Such novels
as we have alluded to are generally
written for the purpose of taking
sides i'll some prevalent controversy.
Thus a Catholic novel has for its
purpose TO defend Catholicism, and
the process is generally very SIM
pie. All the good and wise people
are made Catholics and the wicked
and foolish Protestants, and the
end of the story leaves the former
in the state of triumphant virtue,
and the latter suffering the punish
ment due TO their vice and folly.
The reflective reader readily sees
how easy it would have been to
have reversed the process, to have
made the Protestants virtuOus and
triumphant, the Catholic criminals
suffering merited punishment, as
indeed has been done in many Il
Protestant novel.
The present work differs from
such novels in not taking sides in
a controversy it deals with state
of things on which there is no con-
trOversy, but which IS universally
deplored as a mOnstrOus and undis-
puted evil, and so addresses itself,
not to proving the existence of an
abuse already recognized but to an
analysis of the cause and sugges-
tons for its remedy.
Mr.. Howels wisely acts upon the
assumption that, in this country, |
legislation is rooted in public opin-
ion, and that it is salutary or mis-
chievous according as prevalent
ideas are sound or unsound in refer
ence to the matters dealt with.
Thus in seeking the cause of vicious
matrimonial and divorce laws he
gives his main attention to the lax |
and vicious sentiments prevalent in |
reference to the general relations of
the sexes, to the preliminaries of
marriage as well as to marriage it
self. With this view he selects as
his leading character the average |
belle of a New England village; |
she is the daughter of an infidel
lawyer who dOtes on her, and an in
valid mother who has long abdica-
ted all pretense of exercising au-
thorty or even influence in the fam
lily. The father is something of a
character he is arbitrary in the ex-
IRENE, believes in nothing and no
body he owns the village newspa-
per, for which he requires an editor,
and this introduces the principal
male character, we will not call
him the hero, for his whole charac-
ter is the reverse of heroic. He is
graduate of Harvard, writes smart
articles, talks as society men are
supposed to talk in Boston, wears
city-cut clothes, and above all,
owns a sorrel colt, which he drives
in a stylish sleigh, called there a
cutter. OF course he becomes the
ideal of all the girls in the village,
and what is more to the purpose he
with an incontrOllable
passion the poor girl whom we
have described. She becomes as
his as the shoes on his
feet, he likes her little better than
IA dozen other girls whom he has
flirted with. She has never been
and never learned self
he has never scrupled to
IA pretty girl as if he were
i'm love with her. She is utterly
ignorant he is utterly worthless.
We do not propose to give the
plot of the novel, our readers we
trust will read for themselves; but
it is in the details of this rash, I'M
equal and ill-conSidered match that
the author seeks and finds the seeds
Of the subsequent disasters attend
ing the married life of the parties.
Of course every reader will under
stand, or at least every woman will,
hat frantic jealousy on the part of i
he female is an inevitable incident
If such n match.
The finest resources of his art are
aviShed on this part of his subject
)y the author, and he shows him.
'elf a consummate artist in its exc
luton. None but an artist of the
irst class could have given us the
picture of poor girl carried help
essly away by such IA torrent of