Recent Fiction [pp. 320-324]

Recent Fiction.
woven together by a thread of narrative, telling how these writers, together with an easily recognizable Eminent Tragedian and Beatrice, were detained in mid-ocean by a broken shaft, and entertained each other with
stories. The device, including, as it does,
a fragment of portraiture of the writers and
conversation put into their mouths, is a
little bold, but original and entertaining.
The stories have a curious family likeness,
which we had never noticed before in the
separate authors; they proclaim themselves
English, and English of the same school,
widely as they differ in subject and spirit.
F. Anstey's seems to us, on the whole, the
best, even remembering Mr. Stevenson's
curious study of the problem of good and evil
in the same man (" Poe with a moral sense
superadded," as the critic in the book comments, though he might better have recalled
Hawthorne).
Perhaps we should also include among collections of short stories the three, which
are neither long nor short, bound together in _ackanapes. Daddy Darwein. 4
Short Zjre.1 These are beautiful little tales,
simple, even to the simplicity that is generally dedicated to children, yet only one of
them could properly be called a child's story.
Two of them are pitiful, and a sensitive child
would cry hard over them, yet they are not
in the least morbid, but have in a high degree that sentiment of even romantic courage, knightliness, and love of duty that sometimes comes out with an unexpected charm
from under the prosaic English character.
Our literary ideals in America hardly admit
of taking life so seriously, and such tales as
these three could hardly be written among
us. Children play a large part in all three,
and they are very real children. Two of the
tales are illustrated by Caldecott. The book
is one that our readers will do well to read.
Inquirendo Isiand we should recommend
1 Jackanapes. Daddy Darwin's Dovecot. The
Story of a Short Life. By Juliana Horatia Ewing.
Boston: Roberts Brothers. s886. For sale in San
Francisco by Strickland & Pierson.
Inquirendo Island. By Hudor Gernone. New York
and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. I886. For sale
in San Francisco by A. L. Bancroft & Co.
with more caution —still, it is worth reading
by anyone who can catch the satire, and who
is reasonably at leisure. It is a religious satire, after the model of Gulliver's Travels, as
far as the narrative device goes, though it is
not at all Swift-like in spirit, being perfectly
good-natured, and (except theologically) inoffensive. In fact, the satire is occasionally
forgotten for the sake of a bit of sheer humor,
and very fair humor, too. In several places,
even the blase reader will be betrayed into a
a laugh. It is ingenious, neat, intelligent,
yet not of the most intelligent order, and not
at all orthodox.
Grant Allen adds another to the list of
landsmen that must tempt the sea of fiction
-and a dangerous attempt it has hitherto
proved. He comes out better, however,
than Dr. Hammond or Admiral Porter. His
theme is simple and manageable-a farmer's
boy in Western New York, and a peasant
boy in England, one of whom has a native
genius for painting and the other for sculpture; and the steps by which they escape the
bonds of circumstance, get to Rome, where
they meet, and win fame and their sweethearts. In an affectionate and somewhat
naive way, which beguiles the reader to lay
aside critical judgment and enter into the
spirit of the thing with him, he follows his
two lads along, as also the little peasant-girl
whom he has destined for the young sculptor. He ought, however, to have made her
turn out the possessor of a literary gift (she
was quite clever enough), and then have sent
over a nice American girl, bound, like the
Lady of the Aroostook, upon the development of musical genius, and bestowed her
upon young Hiram, leaving the English aristocrat where she belonged, to the Bostonian,
Audouin. But we fear he does not believe in nice American girls, and thinks
England the only place where any one should
look for a wife. He considers America the
realm of the Philistine, but does not fail to
administer various raps to the British Philistine also. He is not altogether ignorant of
America, and knows perfectly well the differ 3 Babylon. By Grant Allen. D. Appleton & Co.
I885.
LMarch,
322