The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-02-15

naly. indeed it may be regarded as one of the piO-
some time servant King charles T." and took
part in the civil and accidentally the book is
teTs asroogers Jesuits italian Adventures and such
SPleo material OF the so-caled historical ronance
Rulng the twenty-five years that nave elapsed since
John Inglesant' published the world has been
that be,-s 49,, ,r,tte1 No.. ~ ,lso 49, hen
tILS% nave peeh Wrlt1en Many OF Lhese nave oSeh
gallant. picturesque affairs Their authors have shown
breathless situations but outside of BIr.
Stanley Weyman's books. what remains of all this
TO what one might call the shelf of onary class
is II Is easy to ansVvernot one 1t Is barely pos
sDle indeed 10 remember the titles of the most
for tte While Ienre bfo me f ngblic b soon
even in those the books will swept along into
the property together with the haberdS the
helmets. and all the other gallant trumpery which
has for awhile been mere in fashion and which
Is ABOUT 70 take its turn of being out of fashion
agaln And, talking of the dramatized novel. one
wonders why John Inglesant' has never found its
way onto the stage the others for In its per-
tses parts II has the making Of an excellent his
torlcaI melodrana. Doubtless. the very suggestion
NouIa oe painful TO MI Shorthouse and no writer in
@ Ion 70 ignore the nnanclal consideration but
would shrink from having the merely external frame
OF MS book masquerade before the foOtlights-whiIe
- teI essence escaped ike the soul OF murdered
man And OF course it is just that finer essence
that still keeps it alive. Compared with the skilled
manufacturer of the modern historical novel Mr..
construction and incident The sensational elements
o. MS plot are almost pueril in their conventiOnality
the general machinery is almost quantity cumbrous
and naive. Ones interest what happens is of the
mildes the course of events is innocentI, trans
parent Any third rate historical ronlancer could
nave made better job of the stOry-as story But.
as so often happens with Iong-lived books the COM
paratfYe lnsignhcance of the story in John IN
glesant IS unlmportant; and on a re-reading Il
proves itself still living book. in spite of every
drawback and limltation-by virtue the sweet and
serious temper which perva6es it, like the fra half
heard airs Of that old chamber-music'' OF which In
Siesant was devoted amateur. John Inglesants
is a book with atmosphere-an atmosphere of rare
spiritual refinement. and at the same time with the
suggestion in it of Spiritual adventure The book in
or seventeenth century romance" and as such is
rich IN noble sensations. know only one other mod
efn book which possesses similar atmOsphere OF
pure Yet romantic religious feeling book of course
much its superior, namely Pater's Narius the Ep-
curean' Both books rornances of the spirit the
adventures in each adventures Of the soul But
Patsf, OF course, was original master English
prose, and Mr. ShOrthouse's unObtrusve manner of
writing almost as little accounts the impression
MS book continues to make as the external
conduct OF his story In vain examine page after
page and this passage and the other to find the
secret OF the books charm hiding place of its sub
lie spiritual perfume Yet somehow the charm is
there. by some untraceabIe means life has been
explanation is Mr.. Carman's-"the man behind the
book Mr.. ShOrthOuse has meditated on high mat
tiers, IN serious exalted spirit: his thoughts have
dwet in holy places, and when he comes to set them
on paper, the plain words uncOnscously to their writ
err marshal themselves to the music OF his ed
tation and breathe like purity of tone There is a
mystery about pen and ink and the subtle way they
convey and betray the truth about a writer which
he as little as anyone understands.
Copyright. 1900, by Robert Howard Russell