The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-08-07
NEW PUBLICATIONS.


NEW PUBLICATIONS.
Not in the Prospectus. By Parke Dan
forth. Boston: Houghton, Miff1in & Co.;
Portland: Loring, Short & Harmony There
is word in the English language that, in
this country at least, has fallen into the list
of damaged phraseology"-t word "clev-
err For by some twist of New England
awkwardness it has become a description of
that Yankee good nature and drawing am
liability which is said to be characteristic of
our rustic population. In its original signif-
;cance, however, the word clever Is just
the term that we should apply to the first
book of very bright writer whose nom de
plume, by remarkably Happy thought"
is Parke Danforth. The story is light, but
not all light reading is bright reading; and
this record of the mishaps and sorrows not
crushing-that overlook one of the tourists
on the Joy Excursion-''p personally conduct
ed" to Europe, is felicitously conceived and
gracefully carried out from first to last
1t is always easy to say what Mr.. Lowell,
in one oflhis recent delightful addresses in
England warned us against doing-that lit
erary work is not something else than what
it very plainly is. Thus poem of Longfel-
lows is not one of Shakspeare's plays; and
Steckton's last novel is not scientific trea-
tise. So it might easily be said that mot in
the Prospectus" is not a novel after the style
of Thackeray or George Eliot. Nor is it
story with the full, broad sweep possessed by
novelists of the second grade, like Black
more or Hardy or Mrs. Oliphant 1t is en-
phatically an American novel after the style
of James and Howells CThis is by no means
affirming that it is in any sense an imitation
of either) 1t is no more an imitation than is
any story of contemporary life in America
a novel of manners, which must of necessity,
follow the lead of our two most celebrated
writers of fiction. Parke Danforth's style is
her own, and emphatically, her wit and
cleverness are her own.
AS we have said the original idea, the
motif of the story is happy one. To take
party of tourists of that miscellaneous,
hodge-podge character that is apt to be-
drawn together by the prospectus" of
cheap excursion to Europe or Alaska, or the
Isles of the Sea, to have all kinds of out
ward accidents happen-literally snot in the
prospectus"-which shall materially affect
the fortunes of the heroine, was felicitous
stroke at the outset. 1t need not be denied
that this is of the nature of the farce, rather
than the 'genteel comedy" bGta good farce,
as many amateur actors have had reason to
discover, is not so common.
Having said this, we have limited at the
real strength and weakness of this story. Its
strength lies in its odd and humorous Incl
dents; the Sunday evening service on board
the vessel, capitally done; the exploration OF
Westminster Abbey, with the intolerable
and painfully audible expl anations OF Mr..
Messer and the fdgety Interruptions of the
guide; the misadventure in which Mr.. Mes
ser ushers his ladies into the carriage al
ready engaged by the two young men, and
insis.s through violent struggle with the
French language, upon the drivers carrying
them home-an admirable bit of fun, carried
off with great dash and spirit; and the last
night in the hotel in Paris, where poor An
stice and Miss Valeria watch the long hours
through, in terror Of all imaginable and I'M
imagined terrors that may spring upon them
from out of that constituencies city.
But more than this, and perhaps more i'm
portant than this, as they reveal Parke Dan
forth's power of portraying characters, at
least characters of an odd or eccentric type
there are two or three Municipalities so ex-
cellently drawn that they live in the readers
mind as quite new and original creations.
The hero of the book, by weight and vivid
ness of drawing, is not Edmund Wolsey, the
unexceptional but slightly conventional lover
of the piece, but Mr.. Messer, the President
of Dryburg College. There is hardly touch
of exaggeration in this character, something
all the more remarkable as there was an ex-
cellent field for exaggeration. The man
stands before us 'as large as life" but no
larger, with all his fussy self-importance,
his pomposity, his inconceivable WEAKNESS
His long speeches, set and elaborate as any
he could have addressed to the helpless stu
dents of Dryburg College, have no grotesque
ness, no air of burlesque about Them they
are merely the tiresome platitudes OF the
pompousviliage magnate we all have known.
Mr. Messer is unique and admirable as Miss
Bates and the inimitable Mr.. Woodhouse in
Miss Austia's novel of Emma" are admira-
BILE and unique.
Another great success is Miss Harris
One never tires of the scenes in which she
figures, and to which she lends the kind OF
crispness and freshness that is impaired to
light summer repast by particularly well
prepared salad. Her seasick misery is as
delightful as her later lively snappishness-
a sharpness backed by the very best of hearts
and more common sense than is always re-
| yealed by the more conventional hero and
heroine When the last jingle of her jet
trimming dies away, we mourn her loss, and
are hardly consoled by the fact that we are
now to be regaled with bit of genuine love
story.
We must add to these two quite original
creations the wretched small boy, whose
cruel directness as to his own brilliant mat
rimonial prospects-in contrast with the
gloomy outlook of his sister-quite cuts off
poor Anstice from all hope; with boy-like
| frankness mercilessly abating not one jot OF
the truth to save the sufferer a single pang.
We will even remember the irate Bridget
whose bit of Hibernicism is so capital, and,
| as in the case of the greater lights, not Que
hairs breadth overdone.
We have thus limited at what are Parke
Danforth's most conspicuous gifts her VIII
and her power of presenting odd or humor-
GUS characters and incidents in fresh and
always vivacious manner. What she lacks
and it would be strange if she showed IN her
first venture what is apt to be the GROWING
attainment of far older authors-ls the pow
er Of sustained narration, of telling her story
without hitch or break, and of keeping up
an unf1agging interest in the fortunes Oh oM
of her characters. Her force is little spent
on those who are, after all, only the walk
| ing ladies and gentlemen MIR. Messer, MISS
| Harris, Miss Tubbs, rather than the lead
ing LADY, and the Juvenile" hero, who are
somewhat less interesting than we would