Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-16
OUR BOOK TABLE.
| THE LADY OF CAWNPORE-By Frank
Vincent and Albert Edmund, Lancaster.
Published by Funk Il Wagnalls, New

THE LADY OF CAWNPORE-By Frank
Vincent and Albert Edmund, Lancaster.
Published by Funk 81 Wagnalls, New
York
THE Lady of Cawnpore" is story of
life on two continents where the conditions
are as widely separate as are the lands
themselves. Between life in Hindostan
and in America there is wide gulf. In
one it is extremely sensuous, and in the
other to be alive Is only another name for
the exercise of all human faculties in an
alert activity which is unresting. A large
part of the scenes in this fiction are laid IN
the luxurious hide, and in lengthy pro
logue the story of the trials of Madame
Gregory (the LADY, affords an opportunity
for narrating some of the horrors of the
Sepoy mutiny; also of the cruel scenes of
the massacre in 1.-The House of the Ladies'
at Cawnpore, and at the close leaves the
heroine, sole survivor, in the power OF an
Indian voluptuary.
The curtains is then rung down, the play
proper opens in 4 New York boarding
house, with Mrs. Mincer, her husband and
boarders as the dramatis personna.
1t is here that one is first made acquainted
with Beatrice Orme, who really de-
serves the place of heroine, as she is the
loving and the beloved. Rev. Marmaduke
Allan, her lover, is represented as rich,
young, handsome and gifted, man
voluntarily choosing to devote himself to
ministrations in lowly places and to be
rector of small church in a part of the
city where his charge is principally among
the lower orders. BY singular provision
in his fathers will he is forbidden to marry
on the penalty OF losing his fortune. OF
coure to true love this is no bar, but being
on the point of marrying, his guardian gives
him letter in which the reason is set forth
for this restriction, sand it is of such a
TO late him hp1r the
odium of being mercenary enough TO re-
linqush all thought of marriage.
Having lost faith in Christianity he sails
for India, intending to pursue the study OF
Buddhism and if possible follow its teach
ings in the hope that when ages have sue
ceeded ages he may obtain the blissfpl
nirYina where RECONSIDERATION ceases.
The main interest of the book lies in the
chapters devoted to the hero's life in Be-
mares, the sacred city of Hindostan. In
these are passages of vivid description, and
the reader is made acquainted with life
where Buddhism dominates. There are
also dialogues between Allan and de-
voices of the strange faith, which have
the charm of novelty and enlighten the
reader in the tenets and requirements of a
religion having so many followers in the
far East AT the last Madame Gregory is
most OPPORTUNITY reSurrected and proves to
be Allan's aunt and guardian angel, also a
benefactress to all who have figured IN the
story.
Tie book as literary effort hardly de-
serves praise. There are chapters showing
skill, such as the one describing night
with those deadly serpents. the cobras, and
the death of Alive, the Hindoo girl, who
had been rescued by this pseudo priest and
philosopher from a life of degradation
among the Buddhists, but in iuxtapositiou,
and with only thread to link them, are
hos lNn
creditable to a penny-a-liner. 1t is rare
that the work of two authors dovetails.
Usually, it shows as the workmanship of
two, and there is perceptibie lack of har-
mony in style, and a difference of touch
that reminds the reader not of duets, where
all parts blend, but of the fantastic where
a pianist plays different tune with each
hand. The authors have seized upon pop
ular renaissance of the doctrines of Budd-
hism in order to attract, and it is probable
that their novel will have readers because
of this.