New-York tribune., 1901-09-28
IN EXPLODED NO TELIS1.
HARRISON AINsWoRTH IN A NEW EDl-
TION.

RooKwooR BY william wi, WaT5sonP Hd
George Barrie & Son.
cRIGHToN By william Har5lsonp 5 phaaephia: Anigii
George Barrie & Son.
JACK SHEPPARD By William HarrisPPnh 1 Ph;iadeI aiIS
phia: George Barrie Son.
THE CONSTABLE OF THE ToWEKa BY yp VIII a.
Philadelphia: George Barrie Son.
These volumes are the first We have received
in new edition, printed for subscribers only
OF the historical romances of Harrison AIMS
worth The publishers apparently convinced
that there is a market for the one Thousand
numbered copies which they are producing for
they have lavished much care upon ther
enterprise The type to be sure, is only nloo-
erateIy attractive but a handsome paper has
been used there are numerous illustrations, in
cIuding portraits we'll reproduced and etchings
by French artists after paintings by American
and foreign illustrators. and the binding or llght
blue cloth with white title labels is especially
satisfactory There is no editorial machinery
beyond that existing in the authors own eoi-
tions. and the brief biographical notice prenXeo
to the first volume is that published in the Die
tionary of National Biography with slight
omissions To the reader who likes to have
English fiction pretty thoroughly represented on
his shelves this edition will be welcome and II
ht. is a wise reader he will not keep 1T there Tor
purposes of reference alone he will from time
to time take of the books down and go
amusedly through it. AT the same time, such
reader will also indulge in considerable skip
ping" and after he has thoroughly completed
a perusaI Of saw "Rookwood' or THE Con-
stable of the Tower he will let Harrison AIMS
worth alone for long time.
He is one of those authors with whom 1t is
candidy impossible to live on terms of intimacy
through any great stretch of time. He enjoyed
much popularity in the thirties and forties. and,
indeed, his cited only the other day by
a commentator desirous of proving that the
present absurd vogue of inferior novelists had
been paraIleled in earlier times. commonly sup
posed to have been favorable to the success of
good work alone Ainsworth sold in huge edl-
tions and received large prices. But even in his
own lifetime the essential shalowness and art-.
ffciality of the writer found out. His works.
are packed with incident and he often shows de-
scriptive power, but the glamour of historical
romance, as he understood it. soon fades The
episode-to choose from a hundred-of the
descent of the Column of Catherine de Medicl, In
'Crichton," ought to be thrilling, and no doubt
it was thrilling to a great many readers of Aims
worths own generation, but it leaves the mod
ern reader cold. He is family excited when
Crichton proceeds to lower himself by rope
from the dizzy height with Ginevra in his arms
garou prepares TO cut the rope at the top with
his sword But then everything is spoiled by
fustian of this sort:
"Ha! have a care noble Crichton," shouted
the Englishman; have care, sayi Saint Dun
stan and Saint Thomas and all other good saints
protect thee, Desist craven hound, what
wouldst thou do? The curse of Saint Withhold
upon thee! Oh, for a sling roared
Blount. ITO srnite that accursed Philistine be-
twixt the temples"
1t all rings hollow, because It is fabricated out
of specious materials Scott endures because
the strength Of genius and the truth of nature
are in his work, and because upon even the mos
rhetorical of his passages there is the mark o.
a master Ainsworth's colors laid witt
too heavy brush. His drama smacks too much
of the theatre and too little of the world of men
| There is something pathetic about his work a
Ne look at it to-day. He read much and took
enormous pains, and we have indicated
him TO make it worth while to revisit at Ions
! intervals his ambitious pages. Because, too, h
has certain historical significance, occupying
a minor but definite place in the development o.
English fiction 1T is right that he should figure
| in the library. But that he should ever be gal
| vanized into a really active existence again in
| literature seems altogether improbable.