New-York tribune., 1886-03-19
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
MR. CRAwFoRDs LATEST NOVEL.

W.
A TALE OF 4 LONELY PARISH. BY F. MARION
CKAwfOR.. Crown SVo PIP $50. Macmillan ""
Mr. Crawford i, getting his pace. lie mas eA-
haustcd the extravaCances OF his " MI lsaacs
perioJ. and overcome the uncertainties wh'cn nave
tronbld some of his later efforts He is no longer
astonishing and no longer provoking; put Ia ccaN
inc 80 he sensational. eccentric, melOdramatic,
Disraelish he has learned to write very 0ood
novel His new book is a capital piece OF WORK.
Tho story is well conceived and well constructed,
tbc narrative is always animated. and the sketches
of chsractcr although they touch only sur
face indications are clear and true. me
English village in which the scene vi
action i, lald is indeed remote and quiet ana the
actors are few but there is no lack OF lucident anu
excitement in the three households concerned with
,he Story while nj the same time there is no stretch
of probability in the plot. The principal event
npon which the complications iii the Lonely fallSh
dencnd has been used by great MANY other
novehsts: still no seasoned reader of fiction OBJ
iects to the occasional reappearance OF the
familiar inventions OUT of which he has learned to
expect 60 many delicious troubles The inopportune
return of the Objectionable husband is foreseen
from an early period of the story he surprises no.
body when he knocks at the window on a RAINY
night as hc has done in fifty other stories; and yet
we arc lust as much interested III the
author's scheme for finally disposing OF HIM
ms if the miserable wretch were a
fresh creation. Mr. Crawfords manage
ment of this stock parsonage is highly effective;
all the situations in which he figures are dramatic
the difficult scene of hi, first meeting Win the VIII
is admirably done and the closing chapters one
of the strongest and at the same time one ol inc
most natural pieces of writing that any author has
gwen us. -,.
There is no little psychological insight in the
when
wounded and unconscious ruitan thrown upon MS
bonds-the man who has tried TO take his life. who
hos done aud continues TO do the most cruel INJURY
10 the woman JuXOn loves and who alone stands
between them and happiness Temptation does not
assail him in n crude and obvious form but there
are possibilities in the peculiar situation when
might confuse weaker nature, and Mr. Craw-
ford puts them forth with suOtieiy
which only has the effect OF illustrating
Juxon's innate noblcncsS. This Is good art; It is
bringing ont the Leros strength of character i'll the
orisIs of the story by the scverest of all tests.
Eonally successful in a wholly different line Is
the study of John Short This excellent and im-
pulsiye Young man. falling madly i'll love at twenty
one with a woman ten years older than himself, be-
bavcs in delightfully."- abSuri manner all through
the Christmas holidays, goes back 70 Cambridge IN
DESPAIR an returning at Easter, finds that some
how his love has atkdbozed away. MI. crawford
treats the whole episode with a serious air and
fine sense of humOr never letting 1t degenerate into
farce but keeping 1t at the pleasant level OF gen
tee comedy Shorts reappearance in the society OF
the Lonely Parish, sObeGed and matuIed by
his struggle for hOnors at the University,
and his meeting with the 1ar one
who seems to him now rot the
same woman he had known short time before,
who has suddenly grown Old, whose touch 10
longer thrills and whose words no longer fascinae
him-all this is amusing in the conception and
made stIll more so by the discreet manner IN which
If Is told There is a quiet humOr so i'll the sketcn
of the wears wife. Mr. Crawford has studied that
estImable and tremendous creature. the British ma
tron, to some purpose