New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-10-14
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
APP u.wTVoRNEs BELATED STORY.

1cRTIrHFrs FOOL. BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE. l2mo.
Up 47O. James X. Ossood d 70
AIR Hawtborne's story is something of dlsap-
Monument and yet ii has qualities which the crl'!c
must note with satisfaction. 1t shows growth. IL
10 clearly superior to his last novel, " Dust IN
imaginative power and originality, and 1t conveys
the impresaOu that the author Is rapidly taxing Els
own measure. Self-knowledge IS giving hlm as
surance He strikes out boldly in a rather hazard
Gus path, and his movement is direct and vigorous
There is no doubt that he has carefully studied ms
fathers methods and there are scenes IN
Fortunes FoOln which certainly never couiu
have been written except under the III
fnence of the elder novelist. Not 10
tire the reader with citations let US take only one
oonspicuous instance; we mean the meeting be-
tween Lord Castlemere and NJ Malgre, when the
Freuchman, after nursing his wrath III solitude 1or
fourteen years finds himself too old for vengeance:
GBody of God! ~ cried the old frenchman' rising
trembling from his chair, hls features IWlstou
oassion and all the saTQ0niC designs lot lhsuItnS
XII. enenv nnder a specious guise or polteness Tor
gotten IN the hurry of his resentment: " do You
know, wretch, who am to whom you 1ii0i iiion''
for the story OF n dead wOmans shame ,
Having got as far as this, he paused 10 eaVAeI ui9
energies To utter with suitable tnuhuet Vi GU
nbasis and dramatic effect the sentence OF ISNeI9
to- Rnt the old man mad mlscalCulated MS
strength HIS physical forces were no lohsoL "uo .
ouate as they once had been, TO the eNpfesslon VI
his n v. even the rage lJAtl uU" gi"O -
summoned to emerge from the imaginative Ioain realms
IN which il had been nourlshed for so many YEN" -
and to shape itself in living words turned gu. ~
have lost half its vigOr ana keehnesS, anu W on
oSn,,ttad i'm thsIr stead fatal leaven oil human
tenderness and remOTse. IOor M JACQUES, -. IN -;
fore after standing for lew no mo-, anS his bony
fists clencaed all at once sank back Win moan IN
his chair and covered his face with ms ha mus
MY Annette-lny child GS' Ill For 6imgsIf
and narty for her: thv father is too feeble even
10 avengs thee with dignity or odNIu'0~N0 Mo '
honor against these insults.
Nh Julian Hawthorne may alnOst be sand to nave
inherited this passage rather than createdlt But
tits far from our intention find fault with him
,sor submitting 10 an influence which, though OBJ
1rusiyely conspicuous, is nevertheless legitimate
He follows the ancestral footsteps still more closely
in tbe invention Of his themes than in the arrange
mept of the situations An idea which has an
important SHARE IN the development OF the story Is
the baIaful relation between Bryan SnclAr anG
Tom Berne
If ANYTHING in the phenomena of the communion
OF human beings deserves to De called hldtous 1t -
surely such thIrG ab this. Tom btrhe' up 10 jne
moment when Bryan Sinclair hrst crossed MS PAIN
had been IcsGluIe capable, honest renew, whose
great physical strength sometimes lelhB'eu nun ~
be ovyrbeaung, but who was accounted soou ana
trustworthy chap IN the mann. hrlah met hIW'
fought hluI and beat bin; and beat ann IN such
WAY as 70 break his spirit. ION bccSile, soul duu
bodS tis slave Al last, by BTyan's command,
Tom killed a man who turned out te ne MS own
brother From thai tlJne change began 10 eAlel ia
their mn ual attitude Tom, whose character had
become more and more decasca alteI ne HdI SUI
rendered MS moral Ttspons biIlty mad ht|rllAeleSs
Cet US supposed aoiaced himself Win tAe ho,loE
that the recording angel, IN making mp the lhdlct-
lnent against him hereafter, would make allowance
for the tact that the sins committed ny MIN al
Bryau's lnsIiEatIOn were practically involuntary
But tie k. Alag Of his brOu cr, though Is uYOlun-
tary az any OF the former acts diierrd ron lIel1
in being a t1al outrage upon whatever remained Oh
my .
M ssi &c slave INTO an active devil All thought OF
care about uiS iu.uTe salvation vanished IRON MS
mind, Hls complete object an iile was BOW btyah
destruction. Not hlS physcaI destruction now
eyeI--ur that only subO!dlnatoly-DLI th6 eteIuaI
danuatIOn vi his soul. To pass TINS END ne MI
.IpOp je Vice of singular ingenuity, ana indicating
tie awakening ID him OF an intellectual cunning
more s.OtlC than any ordinary circumstances COuu
have rendered HIM capable Of So subtle, Indeed,
and get 80 simple was his procedure that for long
time BRYAN himself had no suspicion OF the Change,
and never perhaps, arrived at full understanding
of it, SuperEcIally, all went on as before; Tom
was still the GnquesuOnng aud complasaut slave
executing without hesitation or reluctance, what
ever unsayOTy or unhOiy job Bryan deemed IL be-
meath his on n dignity 10 have a hand IN. But by
degrees TIE master felt rather than perceived, that
his tool vas becoming some way more aSSlnllldjed
10 himself than heretofore. Tom seemed 10 have so
completely laid aside his individuality to have so
utterly made Bryan's Will his own, that there was
10 longer any Other than 4 physical or accidental
distinction between them. Tom was a supple
Yrntary BRYAN: lie WIS the manifestation OF all
Byyal's wICkedcT ana Uaser characteristics one
soul Informed mem both; but while IN Bryan inns
soul still retained elements IL at were at least
intellectually good and noble, In Tom II was I'M
rqixed and sunless evil. Whatever life Tom had, he
took from Bryan; but 1t was moral death and
corruption, not lite, that me gave III return.
This idea Is thoroughly characteristic OF Nathan
lei hawthorne; bat the son carries il out with an
ingenuity and energy for which he deserves full
credit lie deserves cordial praise also Tor the Vi
vaclty of his descriptions. HIS dialogue Is almost
always striking; and the conversation between the
TWO children Jack aud Madeleine III the beginning
OF the book. Is delightful Ii Jack is much less en-
PERTAINING after lie has grown ~, that is a misiOr
tune which he shares with great MANY real , +
sons We cannot say that OF the characters IN
the story establish a hold upon our sympathIcs
certainly Jack and Madeleine do not; bat
none IF them not even the subor-
dnato actors, are commonplace or Uh-
interesting. The least of them seem worth our
attention.
Yet we call Fortunes Fool" disappointment
BY its conception it belongs in the category ci
romance; but the execution is often that OF q much
lower literary form: imagination gives place to
sensational extravaganza; poetic fancy degcncrates
into lurjd meodrama. 1t Is not only that nearly
all the characters are brought to a violent end not
only that we are made spectators of three murders
one suicide. and several other sudden deaths; but
that the whole drift OF the story Is toward striking
catastropheS for which the author has fai ed 10
provide dramatic necessity. If our great mas cr
of romance had undertaken such 4 theme he would
have imagined some remote but persistent
force, fate or the curse of ancestral SID,
driving events 10 a terrible conclusion. The
sou mas failed TO do this if ne had succeeded, he
too would be a master OF romance. 1t Is true that
something of the fatelul Impulse is found in the
complex influence Of Sinclair and Tom Bernie, but
neither Of these spirits of evil has any necessary
connection with the fortunes of the story and 1t
lust for ts reason that the tragedies i'll which they
involve others affect meo-iramati tic rather than
romantic. The mystery of second sight is piece
of tho apparatus of fiction which Mr.. Hawthorne
uses too freely 1t was rather fOrcibly introduced
into his Last y,uval and il IL ennlovsI hcre with a