The San Francisco call., 1897-12-26
CORLEONE BY Marion Crawford.
The Macmillan Company. New York

~ T is always q delight to renew ac-
quaintance with Marion Crawford
on his own ground, and that ground
is emphatically Italian. Though OF
! American parentage, Mr.. Crawford .
Il is not at home the parental ma
tive heath. When he brings US
across to the New World he writes as a
stranger striving to analyze strangers.
The analysis is subtle, scholarly, sug-
gestive but unconvincing. 1t lacks that
grace of spontanetty which is one of this
writer's greatest charms. But once
back again on italian soil, Marion
crawford writes in an atmosphere
which has permeated his whole being;
the spirit of the old Italy and that OF
the new are alike with him; he moves
as a loved familiar through the dreary
old palaces of the Roman nobility, SYM
pathizing with the prejudices OF the
elder generation and the aspirations OF
the later; intuitively reading the COM
plex characters that result from state
| of social transition; touching off with a
! delicate grace peculiarly his own por-
traits so nfelike that they remain with
! the reader as photographs of intimate
! friends
So it happens that one turns over the
| leaves of Corleone with throb or an
| ticipatory pleasure, for well loved names
| appear on the pages, and to come once
more into close contact with the queen
ly Corona. the chivalrous San Giancinto,
the fiery old Saracinesca and their sur
roundings means pleasant paSume- 1t
must be admitted that. at first, the
! promise seems delusive. The opening
chapters drag, the profusion OF de-
/ tails is worldly tame, our old acquain-
tance Orsino and his brother Ippolito
seem but commonplace sons of their
| aforementioned parents, and an un-
comfortable suspicion arises that even
| the stately old Roman vein is worked
] TNv-,r -frN,-l &c dnli h.
! erately cheating us. substituting lin
! guistic purity and delicate description
| for plot and action.
Pazienza! Corleone is its authors sur-N
! prise box. He has introduced therein
! enough action to supply long drawn
! out Observation-Disclosures melodrama. We
| have a villain who would exhaust the
| kissing energies of the most energetic
! gallery, heroine who is an embodi-
! ment of suffering sweetness, other vii
| lains by the dozen, hairbreadth escapes,
murders and sudden deaths, palpitating
/ excitement amid which our old Roman
! nobility recede into the dim b9 ckground.
/ AS a matter of fact, Corleone is a tale Of
Sicilian brigandage to which the famil-
/ lar Roman drawing-rooms only serve as
an introduction, and the tale is none
! the less thrilling for being told in
! placid, circumstantial fashion, with up
! to-date accessories which give 1t a h6r-
rowing air of reality. The villain of
the piece is Sicilian nobleman, who
has inherited small estates and the
| very largest family ill-fame in all Italy.
| Not q soul in all Rome will believe that
any good can come of Corleone blood,
and when Prince Corleone-otherwise
! Tebaldo Pagliuca-and his brother,
| Francesca, make their first appearance
| In Roman society the welcome they re-
ceive is exceptionally frigid. But they
have a sweet and pure young sister,
hos ~ -rI,A
the nuns of Palermo, while her brothers
were having underhand relations with
the Sicilian brigands, and Corona Sara
cinesca. touched by the girls sensitive
grace, introduces her to Roman soci-
ETY.. The motherly action we'll nigh
proved the undoing of the whole Sara
| cinesca race, for Don Orsino, who had
| hitherto looked askance at all eligible
| maidens, straightway falls In love with
! this daughter of most undesirable
| race, and the complications are dire
| Marion Crawford has never been hap
pier than in his dainty description of this
convent-bred maid, who, for the first
| time, meets man in society:
Now he was looking at her, while
she looked down at her little white fan
that lay on the white stuff of herN
frock. quite straight, between her two
small, white-gloved hands. The nuns
had not told her what to do in such a
situation. Still Orsino did not speak
| Two minutes had crawled by, like two
| hours, and she felt a futtering in her
| throat"
But Vittoria Pagliuca is none the less
| heroine. with whom love is strong as
| death, and she had need to be- The old
family estate of Camaldoh is bought by
! San Giancinto Saracinesca, who medi-
| tates railroad schemes, and who starts
| for Sicily accompanied by Orsino There
! is danger ahead, for Ferdinand Paeliu-
r. hoS
! to the sale, and an escort of carabinirt
! is necessary. AS they near the castle
the expected attack by brigands oc-
I ours and Orsino accidentally kills Fer
dinanG, thereby drawing down upon his
family the vendetta of the entire Sicil-
ian malta. Tebaldo Pagliuca, in Rome.
denies that the Ferdinand who consort-
ed with brigands was his brother, and
secretly meditates vengeance He is a
liar, but brave; his brother, Francesca.
is liar and a coward. The two quarrel
over Sicilan singer, whom both WOO.
while Tebaldo means to marry Lizzie
Slayback, the pretty American heiress
francesca speeds to Sicily on a pretty
! tale-bearer's errand; Tebaldo follows on
a murderer's quest, pursues his brother
inside church, Stays him on the altar
steps, confesSeS to Ippolito Saracinesca
the young priest, and straightway .pro-
! claims him to an infuriated Sicilian
crowd as the murderer, knowing well
that his lips are closed by the seal of
confession. Finally Tebaldo plays into
the hands OF the brigands, but is over
reached by the lieutenant of the cara
biniri, who forces him to betray the
surprise party which was to carry off
San Giancinto and Orsino. The one bri-
! gand who escapes betrays Tebaldo's Sc
cret to the singer, who, in her turn.
reveals it to Vittoria, who carries 1t to
| Corona. The latter, speeding to Mes
! sina, finds Tebaldo dying OF fever;
priest is brought in, and the dying man,
! going over the murder scene in his de-
| hrium, repeats the confession he
made to Ippolito.
A melodramatic ending, with a wed
! ding-bell epilogue, for Vittoria is not a
Pagliuca after all, but stolen daughter
of the Duca di Fornasco.
Many pages in this work deserve QUO
/ tation, and among the finest are the
| descriptions of Ferdnand's betrothed
and her passionate, vengeful despair: