New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-11-04

Hewlett to sit down TO the commemoration of
such repulsve things. He has his reason and
good one
Somewhere beneath the splendid brutality CT
his hero he divines passion that glorifes him.
and in giving him Jehane Saint-Pol a kind of
guardian angel he gives him a companion in the
general design of the novel which keeps him
human makes him sympa thetic where he might
otherwise make the reader shudder too much
She is a creature of amazing beauty and, in
ttat age amazing virtue and strength of mind
Loving Richard to the point of alteration, she
IL vet uneelfish enough to see that the world
is arranged there is place for her as his
Qoeen Married they are, and the cap of Anjou
is placed upon her head, but Berengere of Ma
varre is made Richards Queen, and Jehane is
the first to see that this is necessary. Some
emotion of heroic remuneration is, indeed, es
sential to leblanc if her personality is to be
made at all worthy of the tremendous warrior
she loves As it is MIR. Hewlett is hard put to
It to make her something more than foil to
the King. Whenever Richard appears he fills
the scene. Jehane seems by contrast almost too
FRAGILE a figure " hich may be the author in
tends but which rather disturbs the balance OF
the novel as a work of art, With hero 50
clearly realized Graves a heroine equally
tangible. no matter what her traits may be, and
Mr. Hewlett has not made Jehane anything
like as plausible as her lover. Richard makes
himself understood in these pages as though by
his own words and actions. With Jehane what
we have to go by is simply what Mr.. Hewlett
tells us. But if she leaves US cold Richards love
for her is fiery enough and real enough to justify
her presence in the book; in fact she ac-
composites just what Mr. Hewlett evidently
means that she shall; she is the cause, advent-
tious perhaps, but effective. Of passion which
runs through all of Richards life and illumines
it within its cloud of sanguinary shadow; she is
almost a puppet where he is indubitably a man,
but without her the novel would fall to the
ground.
In so far as she is linked to the last and tragic
chapter in the Kings life, in far as she is as
ISOLATED irrevocaby with the prophecy OF the
manner of his death. she is also indispensable
to the novel But here observe a flaw in
the authors invention, we have observed in
his treatment of Jehane flaw in his powers of
characterized ton The lepers solemn fore
shadowing of the woman's marriage to the
killer Of the King introduces a mysterious motive
that fits we'll into the romantic scheme of the
story. But to have the arrow that ends Rich
ards life at ChaluZ-a fact recorded in history
sped by bowman assigned to the task by the
Old Man of NlusSe, the ruler of the tribe of AS
sassins in the East, is to the chariot of
tragedy the wheels of melodrama, The
epical flavor of Richard Yea-and-Nay" begins
TO suffer vitiation when Jehane fees to the in
famous patriarch in the hills and enters his
harem in order to secure safety for her lord
When her sacrifice is made of no avail and the
King dies at the order of her new husband, the
lepcr is justified, but Mr.. Hewlett is not; he in
PRODUCES Earring note when he dips his brush
in thunder and eclipse after the fashion of
models more imposing than Mrs Radcliffe or
7
fects in this book it is because we think so
much of It's virtues. 1t is remarkable work
We started by praisng it for its portrature of
Richard. We end by praising it for the same
thing. Also for its romantic glamour; for its
rich, nervous Style for its penetrating glimpses
into the characters of all those historic indi-
Viduals and historic types who surround the
hero; For its humor. and for its originality. 1t
has a unity despite the .egregious Old Man of
MUSE and his Weddings with the plot, far be
yond that of The Forest Lovers" And it has
the quality that belongs to all of Mr.. HewIett's
work the quality of creative imagination.