Latest / Reviews / 028 - Two New Novels Sept 16 1880

Transcript

028 - Two New Novels Sept 16 1880 · Reviews

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Section twenty seven of reviews by Oscar Wilde. This is
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All libervox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Recording by Correy Samuel, Reviews by Oscar Wilde, edited by
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Robert Ross, Section twenty seven two New Novels, Palmal Gazette,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: September sixteenth, eighteen eighty. Most modern novels are more remarkable
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: for their crime than for their culture, and mister g
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Manville Fenn's Last Venture is no exception to the general rule.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: The Master of the Ceremonies is turbid, terrifying, and thrilling.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: It contains, besides many moving accidents by Flood and Field,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: an elopement, an abduction, a bigamous marriage, an attempted assassination,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: a duel, a suicide, and a murder. The murder we
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: must acknowledge is a masterpiece. It would do credit to
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Geboreo and should make Miss Braddon jealous. The Newgate calendar
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: itself contains nothing more fascinating. And what higher praise than
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: this can be given to a sensational novel, Not that
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Lady Taine, the Hapless victim is killed in any very
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: new or subtle manner. She is merely strangled in bed,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: like Desdemona. But the circumstances of the murder are so
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: peculiar that Claire Denville, in common with the reader, suspects
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: her own father of being guilty, while the father is
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: convinced that the real criminal is his eldest son. Stuart
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Denville himself, the master of the ceremonies, is most powerfully drawn.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: He is a penniless, padded dandy who, by a careful
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: study of the grand style in deportment, has succeeded in
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: making himself the brummel of the promenade and the autocrat
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: of the assembly rooms. A light comedian by profession, he
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: is suddenly compelled to play the principal part in a tragedy.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: His shallow trivial nature is forced into the loftiest heroism,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: the noblest self sacrifice. He becomes a hero against his will.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: The butterfly goes to martyrdom. The fop has to become
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: fine round. This character centres, or rather should center, the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: psychological interest of the book. But unfortunately mister Fenn has
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: insisted on crowding his story with unnecessary incident. He might
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: have made of his novel a soul's tragedy, but he
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: has produced merely a melodrama in three volumes. The Master
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: of the Ceremonies is a melancholy example of the fatal
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: influence of Drury Lane on literature. Still it should be read,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: for though mister Fenn has offered up his genius as
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: a holocaust to mister Harris, he is never dull, and
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: his style is on the whole very good. We wish, however,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: that he would not try to give articulate form to
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: inarticulate exclamations. Such a passage as this is quite dreadful
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: and fails besides in producing the effect it aims at.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: He he he high high hi heck heck heck ha
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: ha ha ho ho bless my ha he ha he
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Hugh Hugh Hugh, Oh, dear me, Oh, why don't you
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: heck heck heck heck heck shut the ho ho ho
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: ho ho Hugh Hugh window before I Ho Ho ho ho.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: This horrible jargon is supposed to convey the impression of
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: a lady coughing. It is, of course a mere, meaningless
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: monstrosity on a par with spelling a sneeze. We hope
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: that mister Fenn will not again try these theatrical tricks
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: with language, for he possesses a rare art, the art
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: of telling a story well a statesman's love, the author
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: tells us in a rather mystical preface, was written to
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: show that the alchemist like transfiguration supposed to be wrought
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: in our whole nature by that passion has no existence
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: in fact. But it cannot be said to prove this
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: remarkable doctrine. It is an exaggerated psychological study of a
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: modern woman, a sort of picture by limelight, full of
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: coarse colors and violent contrasts, not by any means devoid
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: of cleverness, but essentially false and overemphasized. The heroine, Helen
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Rohan by name, tells her own story, and as she
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: takes three volumes to do it in we weary of
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: the one point of view. Life to be intelligible should
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: be approached from many sides and valuable. Though the permanent
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: ego may be in philosophy, the permanent ego in fiction
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: soon becomes a bore. There are, however, some interesting scenes
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: in the novel, and a good portrait of the young
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: pretender For though the heroine is absolutely a creation of
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: the nineteenth century, the background of the story is historical
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: and deals with the rebellion of forty five. As for
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: the style, it is often original and picturesque. Here and
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: there a strong inter view, vial touches, and brilliant passages.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: But there is also a good deal of pretense, and
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: a good deal of carelessness. What can be said for instance,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: about such expressions as these, taken at random from the
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: second volume E vanishing solitary loneliness in my then mood
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the bees might advantage by to day? I would not
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: listen reverently as did the other some who went entangling
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: myself in the net of this retiari. And why should
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Bessinio's beautiful speech in a trial scene be deliberately attributed
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: to Shylock? On the whole a statesman's love cannot be
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: said to be an artistic success. But still it shows promise,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: and some day the author, who, to judge by the style,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: is probably a woman, may do good work. This, however,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: will require pruning, prudence, and patience. We shall see one
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: The Master of the Ceremonies by Gmaville Fenn Warden Downey
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: two A Statesman's Love by Emil Bousche, Blackwood and Company.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: End of section twenty seven. Two new novels,