The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-25

| gard to coming books is entirely to their
credit and proves their possession of high
business qualities; nevertheless, experience
| has taught their patrons that expectations
| may be wrought so high in regard to a
| given work that a reaction sets in when it
| fails to meet them all and the novel is
rated below it's deserts.
Whether not this is the case with the
| reviewers Of Hall Gaines new book, THE
| Christian" it is impossible to say, but the
| comments on the story vary in character
| to an unusual degree 1.-THE Christian has
| been advertised extensively and shrewdly.
| Mr.. Game has written two or three books
| that have attracted much attention, though
| they can hardly be said to be popular in
| the ordinary sense. 1t was announced that
| this would be the authors greatest and
| most powerful work 1t was told how he
| had spent months in the London slums in
| order to get local Color it was explained
| that he had also made a study of the
| theatrical world for the same purpose, and
| it intimated that his hero would be
| Christ-like in his self-sacriflce and services
| to humanity. The public was assured that
| it to be the novel of the century, that
it's literary merit was of the highest and it's
| dramatic force somethir : remarkable. All
| these things may be true, but the would
| be reader who has waited for some other
| guide than the advance interviews and an
ncements-commonly a prudent course
before purchasing the volume finds little
help from the published criticisms. The re-
viewer of the New York Evening Sun says:
1t is impossible to call 1.-The Christian" a
novel; Parts Of it read like extracts from
Mr. Steads Modern Babylon" Parts, Of
1t suggest tract. Most of 1t is In bad
taste, and q considerable portion of 1t IS
bad English. But it is all Hall Caine. Per
sons familiar with NJ. ZolaS Rome" will
fiEd a curious parallel between that glori-
fled guide book and the present book. But
whereas the Frenchman examines pictur-
esque community and describes 1t in highly
colored prose. Mr. Caine unveils the ugly
side of modern society, and rants about
what he has seen, with the fervor OF a sem
SatiOnal preacher.
The British Weekly thinks Glory Quayle.
the heroine, unspeakably vulgar, especially
in her letters, while the London Literary
World speaks of these same letters as
wonderful from a literary point of view"
Max Beerbohm comments on the poor liter
airy style and bad grammar, and says "the
book besides being a crude panorama, may
be taken as a monster-tract on asceticism,
the church. the stage and other burning
questions. It is permeated by a story" A
Chicago writer says the book is written in
chaste and beautiful style, and is intense
ly fascinating and dramatic" Brooklyn
reviewer thinks it establishes the author
as one of the greatest masters Of the art
of portraying human wee and human pas
sion-not the passion of the senses but the
tumults Of the soul-that we have to-day"
And so it goes, and the chances are that
everybody who reads novels will read this
one whether or no, and when they have
done will talk about it for a day or so
then forget it and take up the next literary
sensation.