Evening star., 1896-12-19
kINGSLEY'S DAUGHTER.
Lucas Malet, the Name Under which
She Writes.

From the Chicago News.
Now that the smart set is beginning 10
read and talk about Lucas MaIet's Car
issima." IT is possible that a few OF the
misconceptions and mistakes about that
writer may be cleared up
Reviewers will cease i'm time their allu-
sions to Mr." Malct. The menGat iorsiy
knowing person who informed us not long
ago that the author of The Wages of Sin.
was a Buffalo lady" at present living in
the Isle of Wight. will build his future
romances on other Foundations; il is even
possible that the New York critic NAV
blush for having printed Lucas Malet's
name in list of "fagorite American
authors
Lucas Malet is the nom lie plume of =
woman-Mary Kingsley, daughter Of the
famous Charles Kingsley. and now the wifi.
of the Rev. William Harrison. recto, of
Clovelly. in Deyonshire
Mrs. Harrison has demonstrated i'm her
literary career at least TWO things First
that il is possible for an autho- TO be y-id,
iy read. keenly appreciated by the best
critics. besieged Dy offers from publishers.
and yet refrain from writing eight wears
having elapsed between the publication of
the Wages of Sin and that of THE Car
lssifna, while there Were long intervals be
tween other works from the same men
secondly, that one may be novelist of the
nrst rank and yet avoil individual nuh-
licity. Mrs. Harrison herself would be the
last TO quarrel with misconceptions as to
her identity. Whatever her methods-and
one is tempted. with apologies 10 the Mrs
Burnetts. to believe Them negative i'm char
acter-she has hitherto almos. altogether
escaped the paragraphist and even in Eng
land little is known about her outside IN.
circle of her intimate friends. Cne of an.
dearly loved and carefully educated daugh-
ters OF charles Kingsley tchristened after
\ a.
delightful houselfe at EversIey pictured
by Mrs. Kingsley in Letters and Mem
ories, and married her fathers cura.e and
friend. William Harrison. afterward made
rector of Clovely, that picturesque Devon
shire village so well known TO the read, r.
of Westward, Hor'-a village of a sin.,,,.
street, "a winding. rocky pathway, Pitch
ing neadiohg INTO the bluest sea in the
world Last year in "A Romance of C,ov-
ely, Kate Douglas wiggin described for
us atresh the quaint and charming village
not built like unto other towns but flung
up from the sea into a narrow rift between
wooded hills, where il has clung for sast
years.
In spite of her quiet and beautiful sur
roundings, however il is not the aspects
OF nature, but the urgent, complicated
problems of human life which have most
deeply impressed Mrs. Harrison There arr.
few touches of description in her hooks
little of outward nature
Her 1rst novel, Col. Enderby's Wife"
puDllshed In the early SOS. dealt with the
marriage of a middle-aged colonel TO the
brilliant, soulless Jessie Pierce-DaunnaV
and the pathos of the heros awakening TO
khowiedge OF the fact that contact is
not fusion" Then came Mrs Torime,',
and "A Counsel of Perfection" of wonder
ful charm and insight. studies rather than
stories OF young widow and an old maid
These were followed by "The Wages of
Sin, novel less sensational than its tifle
but OF extreme power and appealing TO
make use OF late phrase of Mr. Quiller-
Couch, not TO a particular. but TO a uni
yersal comprehension"
Now comes Carissima," which concerns
itself with the modern girl and has already
exhausted several editions