New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-03-24
FICTION.
SOME MINOR NOVELS AND NOVELTIES

AN tNpossIBLE Possibility BY Charles z RI L.
'' Wingate Iamo, PIP. 20. Belford ClarHe 80 ~
THE DEAD LEMAN, AND OTHER a IAh and Paul
the sTT.. SEEN famo I By 55s sorSHe wexford
WHEN A MANS SINGLE A Tale Of Literary agn1 LliS
Ry J. W. Barrie. LIMO Pr
THE ROMANCE OF A SHOP. BY Amy Levy lsmo'
pp 301. Boston: Cupples q huiu. ,>-.,
h]N nv Helen Kendrlck Johnson. 1emo' PIP 2oS
D. Appleton Co. go.
A pEMoRALK1NG NAREIAoE; BY Edgar Fs aTwS,n.
lS9O PIP SoS' fhliadoipn'A' . % ''
TIE APOSTLE BY Ernest Daudot Translated BY
ii'A Elizabeth PhIpps Train. 1emo' pp' @S' d.
cERTRUDEs MARRIAGE BY ". Wen HetmTHn rs
Translate by Nm So,. VI sm Dsv pp. so7 worth
ingon Company
There Is Just now strong leaning among novehss
and writers Of short stories toward tho weiru aqu
supernatural No doubt this is In part duo 70 tno
dIfncuIty OF finding unused plots ana stusuons' ihoo
IS also reaction from the pseudorealisac fssnioh IN
fiction. and some reflection from that current Oh occu
speculation tho breadth and force OF which are being
manifested by steady increase In cognate literature
The fra book on our list Is certainly original IN con-
oeptiop being story Of q man who while endeaNor
ing 10 ooniurO up spirit coulurcd hnSeh lnto al
incoporeaI state and found himself helpless pnarf
tom under the spell Of wicked magician living IN
the seventeenth century. Tho fiction y ciaoora'e
the most perplcxng things arc explained and tho
reader has right TO complain that the narrator isis
10 all nm his outlines duly OF course it Is an ex-
pertinent but can hardly be thought very success
full one Tho nineteenth century spirit embodied IN
sixteenth century frame might have suggested many
fantastic situations but tho idea brstleS with DIM
entities and the most that DO said Of the execution
Is the author has done HIS best with an mtractaole
II promising conception This conception, however.
is InartIstIc since from first 10 last II goes counter
to all human experience, true and alleged, and mo
objection Is not met by any attempt at plausible OK
planation In enect the story Is rather cumbrouS and
tircsome, apart from tho novelty Of the main motive
Mr. Julian Hawthorne has yielded easily TO the cur
rent OF tho weird and IN his two tales Constance
and GCalbofs Rivals no gives bis readers uriet
Of occult and splritnslsiic marves In tho hst
story there spook that fnhabits one room for the
space of forty years, continually rappng on the looked
door, but apparently never vontudng owes tho
threshold Of the chamber whore It's body lies. Hyp-
notsn also plays leading part In this story, and The
dsembodIed spirit Is OF decidedly muscular typo,
being able to strsnglc man and 10 leave tho ntris
Of its phantom fingers upon his throat All this Is
sufficiently sensational, but liable TO the charge OF
crudlty. In @Calbofs RIVAL acknowledgements
piost pursues dreadful vengeance Agains. family
ono Of whose members had wrOnged IT, Here VIC arc
introduced 10 tounnallne loelst which possesses
powered with tho mallgn purpose OF the ayongng
spOok, after the Of the aOparatus In the con-
cealcd chamber Of Bulwe:'s Haunted and tho Haunt
ers" 1t IS all very dreadful and not the rast like
everyday life which probably the deliberate inten
ton Of tho author Yet is seems possible that tho
occult might be employed in fiction without producing
result suggestive OF undscsted minging Of the
Arabian Nights and Mrs. Anne Radcliffe.
The story which bears Mr.. winsats's namo is an
unskilfl attempt 10 graft the scientific imagination
upon fiction; Hnd moreover the central idea 10 not
new. Had Bulwor not written the Strange story
with its Margrave, Mr. WingRte might mover have
thought Of Mr. Dunbarton, the man who Is restored
to life by electrical process, and who turns out
to be minus a soul, so that he exhibits but AMI
NAL propensdes. But even hero the snthor Is quito
at sea- for II tho soul were wanting thoro would cor
tainy DO conscience and ethical restraint, bat
there would not be tho deliberate wanton. purpose
less maignty exhibited BY Dunbrton Bulwers
"MArgrayos is, indeed perfectly ruthless whep tho
conservation Of his personal interest 10 concerned but
no docs not go out Of his way 70 do evil nor does
he do II because hs takes any delight in It for ttef
Mr.. wingate, however, has made Quits q mos Of
hts departure, which Is unsldlfally supported
we'll conceived. To give anything like verisimil-
tlide 10 such situation course Of study IN psyehol
ogy and another In physics would be indispensable,
but here all special knowledge seems TO have been
dlsdained-with the natural result
Tho French stories translated by Andrew Lang and
Paul Sylvester open with brief essay on short
stories generally, tho text being English dislike 10
this form Of fiction. "The Dead LemanS Is Thcophile
Gautier's la Morte Amoureuse" It IS a medieval
romance Of fne ghostly favor and in Gautiers best
and most imaginative vein. Tho translation Il SYM
pathetic and delicate, but 10 Is not reproduction OF
Gautiers inimitabo style, nor could II b. The idea
Of the young priest haunted by tho dead CsrimOndo
and living a dual life-his days IN simple parish
duties, his nights In passionate revel-is embodied
with mastery dizziness ana poetic grace and fancy.
The half dozen other hRDslatlons In the volume arc
OF less interest II except that from BalEacs ala
orande Breteohe," which figures here as The Doc
tors story"the change Of title being clearly no i'm
provement, and general principles without jstca-
ton. The traDslatohs are generally good but they
| are not 90 superlahvely excellent to warrant tho
gbc Of the ranslators at an American rendering Of
the BalEsc story here given. And Mr.. Andrew Lang
might have remembered-we cannot suppose him ig-
norsnt of tho facts-that BaEao never put within
the reach Of English readers 10 an adequate tCans-
lation until an American lsdy-Mlss X. p wormelsy--
| undertook the work
| We descend from the region of the supernatural
with certain sense Of relief, and find wholesome
reaction from that form Of sensatlonasm IN Mr. j.
NJ. Barrie's capital navel When Mans Singles 1t
Is "a tale Of literary fe"-or, TO be more exact,
tale Of newspaper lite-and all know that journal
Ism is not allowed 20 De ntefatufe IL Is also English
and Scotch newspaper life that Is represented and tho
glimpse Of the latter shows that II is eurously lke
country Journalism in tho Western States. The
paper life Of London shown by Mr. Barrie s indeed Of
an outside order. He takes US into Metropolitan
newspaper Office and discoses of the secrets Of
the prison-house His literary people arc contrib
utors for the most part, and some of them worry
amusing and particularly cynical. Nothing could DO
funnier than The account OF the literary club, for In
A ny fhA hv
IN gathering subjects for editorial treatment Mr..
Barrie has deeply humorous and nj times mildly
csnstic STYLE which enhances the effect Of HIS unob-
truslve roralizing and gives piQuancy to his work
generally. He draws character with much subtlety
and penetration, and tas Is usually the casel men