New-York tribune., 1907-08-31
A MODERN WITCH.
The Story of an italian Tenn ptress
and Her Crime.

TEMPTATION. BY Richard Bagot limo pp 374
The Macmillan Company.
The MANLEvERER MURDERS BY A c Fox
Davies l2mo. PIP 2ss The John Lane Com
BARBARY SHEEP A Novel By Robert Hich-
ems Illustrated. 12mo, PIP. 253 Harper &
Readers OF Renaissance history well remem-
ber as of its most sinister figures that
Donna OLYMPIA Pamphili who used her position
as sister-in-law of Pope Innocent Y 10 do a
great many things which she might better have
left undone. A sister of hers plays a tragic
part in Mr.. Bagot's new novel. This may sur
prise the reader, who has probably heard that
Temptation is a story OF life in modern Italy,
but, nevertheless. Donna Giulia Maidalchini re
mains an active agent in the development of MIR.
Bagot's plot. Her portrait hangs in the palazzo
Of Count Ugo Vital, a well born landed pro-
prietor of Viterbo. to one of whose ancestors she
had beer married. and from it there exhales an
evil influence which slowly works it's will upon
a soul worthy of her own. the soul of the
counts wife Donna Giulia in her time had a
lover This annoyed her husband and his family.
whereupon. with due circumspection and in obe-
dience TO orders, the lady poisoned the man who
had been unwise to dishonor the house of
Vital II a characteristic episode Of Re
naissance life. the sort of thing which Boccaccio
loved TO exploit IN of his brief tales. Mr.
Bagot adapts il TO modern times and makes out
of ii a very interesting book.
The husband in this mendge tr0is is coun-
try gentleman of the most attractive type. man
ly generous. and devoted to the of his
estate Proud he is, he has married a woman
with peasant blood in her veins. whose beauty
wells a baseness of which even the most ignOble
peasant would scarcely be capable. She is. Incl
dentaIly a most consummate liar, and when a
toar -Ja,,
visit she makes love to him with such skill that
he himself is slow in apprehending the true
drift of her conduct To what crisis does that
conduct lead? Does this reincarnation of Donna
Giulia poison, in her turn, the victim of her
wiles? That is for the reader to find out. Mr..
Eaeot makes il worth his while TO follow the
story of Cristina Vital through its devious
WAYS He makes her character deeply inter-
esting and is the more successful In this mas
much as he allows the woman to speak for her
self SO to say causing her true nature to IN
fold itself In subtle fashion beneath the eye OF
the beholder. He frames Cristina, too. in q
cepital picture o. provincial italian manners,
here exhibiting . knowledge OF his subject quite
eoual TO Mr.. Crawfords and even achieving. at
times In the texture OF his work. vitality
which has occasionally been missing at least
from the later novels of that accomplished
writer Where he suffers by comparison with
the author of "Saracinesca'' is in the substance
of his drama and the stuff Of his male characters
Count Ugo is too simple minded by half; net
even a country squire could be quite as blind as
this gentleman is 10 an intrigue carried on by
his wife under his very nose; nor, having been
,v.rned could he blunder as Count Ugo biunders
Then TOO. the unucky cousin who plays into
c,,s,ina,s hands is totally unsympathetic, a de-
feet unforgivable, from the artistic point OF
view. in a novel AS for the plot, II is gen
erally satisfying far as 1t goes but lts scope
-, ,.~,inaately have been widensd. especially