The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-09-21


London Bookman, writes interest
ing1y of his very gifted countrywoman,
Mrs.. Ohphant. We are struck with a
remark he makes, which did not sur
prise US after reading many notices
Of dea author, that 1.-The obituary
notices which have appeared so far
show that the writer's know only a
very little about her books" He consid-
err her abIest book Agnes" The Lon
don Times has a writer who gives the
preference ITO Mrs. Margaret Matt
lanr.~ The late John BIackwood, Of the
famous old Edinburgh Magazine. held
Katie Stewart" as his favorite. Dr..
NBcoIl says "a brilliant friend, of fine
Judgment: prefers Kristen" above
the rest of her Scotch books. Let the
reader consult the novels named In our
Literary Gossip" in last Thursdays
Messenger for other novels named as
among her best, and he will see how
varied the preferences and wide the field
Of selection from those that are beyond
doubt excellent novels. DR.. Nicoll
holds that she is not an unsuccessful
~bjoGrapher, a very great journalist"
She wrote a great deal for London Spec
tator, st. James Gazette and Black
wood, the excellent. He says:
She had an honorable pride in
Blackwood, the only one of the great
periodicals now left to us which has
dlsdained to lower its standard as
maintaining all the excellence Of it's
did not meet with unmixed approval,
and on various occasions we ave our
selves challenged them. She had eyes
like a hawk. She could say more cas-
lily than most people the things that
stab and blister. She was often merci-
less, and sometimes she was unfair.
She fiercely resented popularities that
were undeserved. She could not abide
mawkish sentiment. "To the
last she was as fierce, as uncontrolled,
as bitter as ever when her temper was
touched. Mrs. Oliphant did not dis
guise her great contempt for h
lar Scotch writer's Of the day. There
was one exception. She was an ardent
admirer from the very first of Mr.. Bar
RE, n rejoiced greatly in her last
days over Margaret Ogilsby, a book
which she put where we think it will
be put at last, as perhaps h most en-
during product Of recent English liter
AZURE. For Mr.. Kipling, also, she had
a warm admiration. But beyond these
two. we do not think she really cared
for any of the younger writer's, while
it is not too much to say that she posi-
lively detested many Of them. OF Ste
venson even after his death she spoke
with extraordinary malignityS"
That reads harsh and makes Mrs. Oil
plant a very different character from
those portraits of her drawn by more
friendly and admiring hands. She is
represented by others as full of the best
sense, of marked sympathy, purity and
attr~activeness. If she was as DR.. Nicoll
indicates overlooking with spites and
bitterness, and even INDUCED m~alignity
h is net a specially attractive woman,
or ever a safe critic to be commended,
whatever her gifts, beyond doubt high,
and however extensive her literary
workmanship, unquestionably excel
lent. She wrote a great deal of criti-
cism that has been published in books.
Dr.. NicOll thinks that "the best of these
undoubtedly is Historical Sketches
of h reign of Georst III" One ex-
tract and we close:
1T was she who wrote in the hour Of
the queens great sorrow the remarka-
bic lines which appeared in Black
wood: |
IS Lord God, on Bonded knee
t. Three Kingdoms cry to Thee
~ God save the Queen"
When she wrote these words, she had
been herself a widow fol hardly two
years"
We have required so often to Mrs.
Oliphant latterly because Of her ad-
mirable qualities as a novelist espe-
-cially, and our desire that a dozen Of
her really delightful novels should be
read now by intelligent readers at a
time when so much that is unfair and
false to true art is flooding the press.
Dnnr ond Wook