New-York tribune., 1903-07-19

West Bv Harry Leon Wilson. ILLUSTRATED ny by
Ilothrop Publishing Company.
CASTLE OMERAGH. BY F. Frankfort Moore
12mo, PIP. 40i d. Appleton & co.
THE author of The House on the Hudson
deserves we'll of her readers. for she mas VIII
ten in that book the kind of story with Wmch
we are too seldom made acquainted IN theSe
latter days 1t is an interesting story one III
which it is impossible not to be absorbed py lhe
tiroe the first three or four pages have been
turnsd and thenceforth this book only increases
in poner. OF course, notices Immediately
+,,o rosa,,bIanca between it and Jane Eyre"
and equally of course it is plain that Miss
Powell has not the genius of Charlotte Bronte.
Rut she has gifts considerable enough to make
a passing collocation Of her name with that
of her famous predecessor entirely legluhlate'
She begins in the best possible fashion. IN the
first chapter her heroine is presented as most
3iouant and attractive child, with traits that
could not but promise for her future ree
from ANYTHING like conventionalty. The scene
of this chapter too, is laid in French Vllla'
and with the title of the book in ones mind
II is inevitable that ones curiosity should be
aroused Where is this strange young heroine
with her Greek name and her classical beauty
+o take US? What is she to do on the shores
of the Hudson?
She is to do. or. rather, she is to assist at
the doing Of some of the most extraordinary
things that could possibly occur IN work OIL
fiction Her father and mother both die early
in the narrative. and after having lived IN lux
ury she is thrown upon her own resources. She
has been educated at home She is sooo
!inguist, she can ride straight and she is. in
deed. so thorough a spOrtswoman that she
prof1ts as a man might from the boxing lessons
she receives Yet there is nothing about this
seemingly cold and dull young woman OF the
needless child of fortune. When she Is lett
alone at last in Long Island farmhouse, and
there receives a summons to come forth and
fight her own way in the world she responds
with courage and address. IL the fifth chapter
she faces the house in which she is to earn
her living in superintendent of the servants
and certain passages in the first description or
it prepare US for what is to occur in this build
ing that gives the book its title. For example,
'the window looking toward the front
was heavily shuttered Inside the glass
door hung a pink silk curtain. This was the
one cheerful object anywhere to be seen" once
inside HighgroVe Hall, Athena Derohan is
dazzled by almost barbaric splendors but IN
the same moment she is made to realize that
she has entered an eerie interior. She finds
there the strangest of buffers, one Claude Mel
notte Raffarty; she fnds-and is properly
as a kind of climax in the series of surprises,
a Madam Erranti, her employer who at one
moment seems sane enough and in the next
almost Witless. Here alone is material enough
for the production of curious situations, but In
due course the son of the house appears and
matters are complicated with vengeance.
Not we hasten to add, in way which the
reader might be inclined to expect 1t is true
that Phlip L. Ii falls in love with Athena,
but this fact is only of significance in that it
leads to all manner of fantastic events. What
those events are need not be divulged. 1t is
enough to state that they daringly devised,
and at the same time are woven into very
plausible fabric. Miss Powell has true sense
of drama Her situations are never spasmodic
in character. They gain in excitement and
force as the story proceeds and effectively lead
up to a startling cl AK. There is good char
acterization in this book Athena and her
parents are well drawn, to begin with; the
fuller portraits of the Errantis are vividly
painted and all the subordinate figures are we'll
hit off. Claude. the butler, is especially well
handled The reat l. crit of "The House on
the Hudson" however is that it has a good
plot developed W n skill from beginning to end
and made intensely interesting.
MI Wilson has gone for his material to
source with which few, if any, Of our recent
novests have had any traffic, to the annals
of the Mormons. His hero is a young man so
devoted to the principles of the church estab-