New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-02-19
SOME NEW NOVELS.
SPANISH AND ENGLISH.

W. s. Gstsbergsr
HARMONIC. A ohrsnicle, BY tie Author o" Estsile
Russell" etc. 12mo pp 29L MACMILLAN ~.
pp 1o S: b. XpS applet Co. Co
AN UNLAIp GHOST; 4 Study in MetsmpsJoho''''
MONAS CHOICE. BY Mrs. ALEXANDER. l6mo. PIP
go. Henry Holt & Co.
RoYs REPENTANCE By ADELNE SERGEANT. lone
PIP 800. Henry Holt * Co.
The novels of the Spaniard, Perez Galdos, are
full OF life and fire. and exhibit noble disgust
| with the conditions which obtain in his country
ut the present day. He writes always Win
purpose and il is the exposure OF national Dsotry
and corruption. To obtain the strong RELIEF whlch
| characterizes his romances it Is necessary that
exaggeration be employed. lie does not aHecp,
| however to be member Of the modern schooi OF
realists He deliberately selects tic most strlk-
ing illustrations of what he wishes to show, and
he presents them with all the force at hs COM
mand. At the same time it is clear enough that
he draws his material from real life, and so care
fully and infinitely infinitely are many OF his
studies that they may well be portraits His
observation Of scenery, OF local peculiarities OF
the behavior Of crowds, OF all the external pho
nomena Of social life Is keen. and his descriptive
capacity remarkable. Leon hoch' ike
Gloria, is study in religious fanaticism and
social proGgacy The world pictured Is re-
pulsive one. We see corrupt nobility cyhlcai,
venal and full of coarse hypocrisies; commercial
class wholly given up to the pursuit OF gam ana
| ready at every turn to swindle the government
| and fleece the people; and priesthood sunk In
sloth yaregated by medieval bigotry Galdos
does not undertake any analysis of the Spanish
masses. Only here and there, as In the graphic
account of the bull-ight in his present romance,
does he deal with them at all. These few touches
f,,I To
hope that he may at some time construct novel
exhibiting the tendencies and characteristics OF
the common people Of modern Spain.
Leon Roch" is Of science who marrfes
bigot and whose life is thereby wrecked. Inc
description Of this strange household the wife
falling more and more under the control Of her
spiritual directors, and the husband with every
disposition for peace and harmony, feeling that he
Is becoming more impotent to produce any I'M
preston on his fanatic spouse, is something new in
fiction, and is full Of grim and almost savage
power There is also striking study OF So
called sanity priest, Luis Tellcra, brother OF
Icons wife. This young man is half-crazed
ascetic of the medi mval type; the kind OF en-
thusast who. had he lived in the first centuries
of the Christian era, would have been an anchor
ite in the Thebaid He is dying of consumption
.
existence as a penance TO be passed through in
sorrow and pain and his body as n loathsome
mask" to be mortified perpctually, and to be cast
| off with rejoicing The influence OF this plOus
creature upon his sister is fatal He widens the
| breach between the husband and wife h0peessly
and precipitates the catastrophe which the III
| tolerablc fanatcism Of " Maria Egyptaca" as the
ghostly fathers named her, leading up to-
Another vigorous series of pictures shows Mara's
ignoble family-one Of the old nobility plunged in
debt over head, without principle or virtue of any
kind-hanging about the rich sceptic husband
bleeding him continually and despising him at
the same time because he is not hypocritc enough
to pretend belief in a religion which they, while
protesting, dishonor and rcpudate by every act
Of their vile and discreditable lives An unhappy
love-story involving the ruin Of two lives, adds
interest to this strong romance. The prevailing
| tone is that OF tragedy hittHr and fierce
satire gives point and edge to the exposures OF
moral perversity and degradation, and the general
impression produced is Of that pervading demoran-
zation which marks decaying civilizations, ana
has SO often in history been the stage Immediately
preceding national dissolution. Leon Roch' IS
indeed painful book, but none the less one oil
marked ability and deep interest, and it Is i'm
possible not to realize that the authors inspiration
is sincere patriotism.
"Ilarmonia7 is curious but decidedly clever
story 1t is called chronicle" and processes
to describe life in one of those odd little English
settlements which have sprung up in the South
since the war The scene is laid in Georgia, and
the narrative is so full of detail of peculiar kind
| that the presumption is strong in favor OF a
| foundation In fact. Harmonic was the name
| given to the queer little colony OF English and
Scotch, composed mainly Of young men who be-
| longed to the most helpless class in the world;
| sons that is Of aristocratc rich mddle-class
people, who had been In the great schools or the
universities and entered life with some knowledge
Of boating, cricket, lawn-tcnnis and shooting, but
in all other respects as incapable as newborn
| babies. These young fellows they appear in
| " Harmoniar are studied from the life The class
is to be found in all the English colonies, and 1t
| furnishes probably two-thirds Of the worst fail
| ures in colonial life. Brought up to depend upon
| others for everything and with no idea OF work
| in any direction, they too apt TO loaf about
billiard saloons and taverns until their money Is
! spent, and then to write home for more, failing
receipt of which they gradually sink into sloVenly
shiftlessness and end by becoming day-laborers or
chronic borrowers and loafers. The author Of
| " Harmonic" has some American characters, but
they are less true to nature than the coonists,
and some Of them remind the reader too strongly
Of Martin Chuzzewit' and the American
Notes" The account of the Episcopal clergyman
and his wife, of the major" Of the Macfarlanes
and the Macgregors, Of the old Devonshire farmer
and his family each and all are extremely real
! istc, while the study OF the dreadful young
colored person." Batheenie, Is surely photo
graph There is much and good character in the
book. The action is free simple and natural.
The point Of view Of the annast IS carefully
maintained, and the interest does not flag at all.
The young English naval officer and his girl-wfe
are especially well drawn, and really show very
clearly the kind OF people who are suited to so
entirely novel existence, and who may be de-
pended upon to grow up with the country
| Altogether Harmonic" must be pronounced a