New-York tribune., 1886-04-04
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE FICTION OF THE DAY.


sN2% Su na%SS sssn su All AsES BY BRIT HAS''
Ma.fscss h;Lar n. ?t$. Indianapolis The Bowen
irated ip 2as ficnrv Holt go. O. " -''''''
HURRIsH AsiuGy. by The Hon. EMILY L.wlKss PIP 2os
MRS. DYMoND BY Miss TnAcKgR.r Pp. ga HsIPer
2as Harper & BROS y
OUR M 4 70 SoYE sse1 Fsn o, by JUSTIN " M'cAF
MRS rEIXADA. BY SIDNEY LusKA pp. 9l7 cas'cil
Miss Hows has chosen Southern setting for her
etory and as tie plot is familiar one. the success
of the book must depend chiefly upon the dcscrp-
ton and character drawing The author has light
hand onick eye aud a pleasant, graceful style.
Her pictures of life iu New0rleans canuot be said
TO challenge comparison with Huy OF MI Cables
work for she wisely avoids the difficulties insepa
rable from attempt To put on canvas so puzzling
n creature as the Creole. Robert Fenardent indeed
is called Creole but he is. so to sneak translated
into Northern tongue. If the idea of him, with
his striking animal beauty and halfsavage ways
was not derived from Hawthorne it might have
BEEN The story is not a happy one The wrong
lover ms the heroine and the right lover, doctor
goes away and expends himself in fighting yellow
fever There Is something jarring in tue ease with
which Atalanta conquers Eer natural repugnance
to man who had taken human life in duel, and
had besides allowed his best friend TO rest under
the mputation Of homicide for long time before
he could muster courage TO tell the trath
The mill Mystery" opens with the discovery Of
the death of young minister under circumstances
which leave it an opeD question whether he was
murdered or committed suicide, and the whole
story.s devoted to the unrayelling OF this problem
There are two brothers and mother of a tragic and
sinister kind: people who are always exchanging
significant glances or gliding about dark passages
in a gruesone manner The mother, wlo by the
way 10 the crown Of the local arIstocracy, IS Il
wretch capable of the darkest crimes. The heroine
il a yonng woman who finds everything ont III the
sbrewdest fashion. The action and dialogue are
often melodramatc. and refreshlnGly dIssinlaI
from the events and conversation OF real llle Inc
reasoning which convinces the clergyman that II is
his duty TO kill himself is little more wonderful
than ANYTHING of the kind we remember but as the
author conveys no hint that he was insane II must
he presumed that she considers his course Iatonal
he Mill Mystery" is certainly gu odd book and
not wanting in originality though the idealism OF
il is eccentric.
All Bret Hartes stories are eminently readable,
but the later bear too strong family
likeness to the earlier. "Snow-bound at Eagles
~ of course tale of life in California. There are
tvpical road agents." of bad morals and good cdu-
cation; travellers OF the ordinary Colonel ana
"Judge pattern, who carry big revOiVers ana
have cold. steely eyes which make other people
throw up their hands in hurry and free Western
maidens who live in the mountains In sem-patr-
archal way. 1t is curious to note how Bret Harte
Smarks time" and never advances. His first
stories have precisely the same characteristic as
his last ones the same shortcomings. the same
felcites; the same general effect Of a work less
sperfect in execution than in conception. Having
done so we'll one wonders that he does not do
better but he does not, and perhaps 1T is now too
late to expect change.
Mr. Riley's stories are often clever and as often
crude The first story. which gives the volume its
title, 10 not one of the best We should give the
palm to the quaint and tender sketch "Where is
Mary Alice Smith 7" while of the poems preiixed to
the stories We should choose The Elf-Chld," an
flowing odd piece of dialect verse quite out OF
the common In the Tale of Spider the influ
ence of Poe is plainly vibeand the story possesses
certain weird force. though the conception Is very
UNPLEASANT. There is something mOnOtOnous about
the way IN which child beros and heroines are
killed of the method recalls some OF Dlckenss
coarser and more tawdry sentlmentalism lhe
merit of the sketches is very uneven, but there are
enough really good ones among them to justify the
publication of the book
Mrs Wexford has invented new sort of villain
crippled youth who has taken to drink as solace
for hopeless invalidsm who is willing to sacrifice
everybody and everything TO his dipsomaniacal
proclivities and who has developed Il prccocious
deuaylty altogether too tOrOuGbgOing to be
natural Madeline, the heroine and to some extent
the victim of this bedriddcn young ruihan, is
charming girl with plenty of frmness and will
mower The sisters of the dipSomaniac are feeble
and rather unpleasant girls who allow 1her
wicked brother to deceive them in the most trans
parent way The material and workmanship OF
the story are alike light the dialogue especially
being stiff aud artificial. The book, however, is
not undeserving place in the Leisure Hour Series,
where it appears.
"Hurrsh is a very different kind of story.
Here there is genuine power, keen observation just
reflection and that faculty of reproducing local
color which bespeaks the born artist 1t isa tale
of Ireland under the League" and the scene is
one of the widest regions in the County Clare The
situation is graphically described Ihe landlords
boycotted shot at refused their rents, on the one
hand; on the other, the peasantry, enfranchsed
from all the old Difference for the landlords full of
Turbulent ideas fostering intense hatred of Eng
land lending themselves to all the local agraran
conspiracies and Outrages with that peculiar IN
adherence TO murder and cruelty which is stand
ing puzzle to outside observers. Hurrish is the
type of q generous war0l-hearted class OF lrsbmen
who are not clear that shooting people from behind
hedges. lamlng innocent caIiie anu terili1 ing
HELPLESS women and children by midnight raids is
effective warfare but ho nevertheless drift along,
Offering no opposition to the dominant violence. and
rather deprecatug criticism Oh account OF their
own slackness IN the cause" There is No bitter
ness in the picture but striking sense ot reality
The author does not sit in Judgment. but simply
tells her strange wild. pathetic story Hurrish,
and Alley" the sweet. pure-minded, Ignorant girl,
Are the most attractive figures in the book Maur-
ice Brady is the most repusive, bnt also one OF the
strongest creations The story IS one to cause
reflection as we'll as to amuse II is a contribution
to the psvcbology of difficult and most interest
L..