The Sun. — 1862-01-20 (London, England)

TEI?AI URE.  _Forest Keep, Three Vols. Hurst and Blackett. This is a tale of singular originality, and great ingenuity is shown in its construction. The sane is laid five hundred years ago, in the martial days of the Black Prince. It is not, strictly speaking, an historical romance, since the actors in the story are fictitious characters, although the hero of Cressy and Poitiers is introduced, and some stirring scenes of the French campaign are described with animation and spirit. Prominent among these is the battle of Poitiers itself, with the capture of King John and his son. The tale, however, is quite characteristic of the times—wild adventure, desperate crimes, and resolute daring distinguishing both knights and dames. The extreme complication of the plot is more like an Italian romance than a legend of our own land, while the reader will not fail to admire the skill with which the various  threads of the entangled skeins are by degrees unravelled and woven together, joining in one the mysteries of France, Spain, and several parts of England. The care and painstaking exactitude of the author is also evinced by the precision with which he clears up every little obscurity which may have perplexed the reader in the earlier pages, although it may have afterwards been forgotten. It would be d'officult, indeed, for the most experienced novel-reader to divine the hidden secrets of  t e plot or to conjecture the dark deeds of Sir Ralph de Sulac, the villain of the piece, and his remorseful accomplice, Inez di Gava. The author is evidently familiar with many of those poets and writers whose spirit-stirring songs have invested the middle ages with such potent attractions for the young and imaginative. He is acquainted, too, with the scenery described, for we are told in the preface that " the tourist through Western Somerset may yet recognise in a narrow meadow by the winding Exe the crumbling walls of Bralynch Abbey, and trace the ruins of the Reformer's Chapel in a deep gorge by the seashore, about a mile to the west of Minehead Point." The Castle of Redstun, which owned such an unworthy ruler in the days when the Lady Beatrice was carried there captive, still stands, it is said, in feudal dignity ; and in the Vale of Argellez, near the Pyrenees, are the old towers of the stately keep, which witnessed Wilfred's incarceration, his narrow escape from death in many ghostly forms, and the murder of his mother by her own sister's hands. The writer's mistake is in introducing reflections or remarks in the style of the present day. In the story itself a degree of unity is preserved, but when the author teps in and alludes to the events of our own times and adopts the easy modern tone, the illusion is lestroyed, which, in a work of historical character, it is so important to preserve. A novelist who selects for his subject the scones and characters of a bygone age, should study to preserve his consistency throughout. He should depend entirely on the story itself eavne rd itsmake on t h e transition accessories t o from interest the mthaennreeardseorf one reader, but age to another, for the reader makes the passage never with him, and does not always return when it pleases the author to pass again into the world of dreams. There is a degree of diffuseness also which might be advantageously curtailed, and which is unworthy of an author who has so much to say, and should not, therefore, condescend to the resources of less ingenious writers. It is the more desirable that these defects may be avoided, as the author possesses undeniable ability, and will probably, with time and experience, produce works of a higher character. We must not omit to mention that several ballads are scattered through the Volumes which possess considerable merit.