Transcript

048 - Some Novels · Reviews

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Speaker 1: Section forty seven of reviews by Oscar Wilde. This is
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Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: Reading by Robin Cotter, July two thousand seven, Reviews by
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Speaker 1: Oscar Wilde, edited by Robert Ross, Section forty seven some novels.
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Speaker 1: The only form of fiction in which real characters do
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Speaker 1: not seem out of place is history. In novels, they
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Speaker 1: are detestable, and miss Bale's romance is entirely spoiled as
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Speaker 1: a realistic presentation of life by the author's attempt to
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Speaker 1: introduce into her story a whole mob of modern celebrities
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Speaker 1: and notorieties, including the Heir Apparent and mister Edmund Yates.
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Speaker 1: The identity of the latter personage is delicately veiled under
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Speaker 1: the pseudonym of mister Atlas, Editor of the World, but
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Speaker 1: the former appears as the Prince of Wales pure a
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Speaker 1: simple and is represented as spending his time yachting in
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Speaker 1: the Channel and junketing at Homburg with the second rate
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Speaker 1: American family, who, by the way, always address him as
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Speaker 1: prince and show in other respects an ignorance that even
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Speaker 1: their ignorance cannot excuse. Indeed, his Royal Highness is no
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Speaker 1: mere spectator of the story. He is one of the
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Speaker 1: chief actors in it. And it is through his influence
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Speaker 1: that the noisy Chicago bell, whose lack of romance gives
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Speaker 1: the book its title, achieves her chief social success. As
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Speaker 1: for the conversation with which the Prince is credited, it
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Speaker 1: is of the most amazing kind. We find him, on
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Speaker 1: one page gravely discussing the depression of trade with mister
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Speaker 1: Ezra P. Bale, a shaddy American millionaire, who promptly replies
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Speaker 1: depression of Fiddlestick's prints. In another passage, he naively inquires
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Speaker 1: of the same shrewd speculator whether the thunder storms and
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Speaker 1: prairie fires of the West are still on so grand
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Speaker 1: a scale as when he visited Illinois. And we are
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Speaker 1: told in the second volume that, after contemplating the magnificent
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Speaker 1: view from Saint Ives, he exclaimed with enthusiasm, surely mister
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Speaker 1: Brett must have had a scene like this in his
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Speaker 1: eye when he painted Britagna's realm. I never saw anything
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Speaker 1: more beautiful. Even her majesty figures in this extraordinary story,
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Speaker 1: in spite of the excellent aphorism Nat touche pas a
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Speaker 1: la reine. And when miss Alma j Ale is married
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Speaker 1: to the Duke of Windsor's second son, she receives from
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Speaker 1: the hands of royalty not merely the customary kashmir shawl
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Speaker 1: of court tradition, but also a copy of diaries in
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Speaker 1: the Highlands inscribed to thee Lady Plowdon Eaton with the
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Speaker 1: kindest wishes of Victoria r I. A mistake that the
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Speaker 1: queen of all persons in the world is the least
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Speaker 1: likely to have committed. Perhaps, however, we are treating miss
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Speaker 1: Bale's romance too seriously. The book has really no claim
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Speaker 1: to be regarded as a novel at all. It is
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Speaker 1: simply a society paragraph expanded into three volumes, and, like
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Speaker 1: most paragraphs of the kind, is in the worst possible taste.
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Speaker 1: We are not, by any means surprised that the author,
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Speaker 1: while making free with the names of others, has chosen
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Speaker 1: to conceal his own name, for no reputation could possibly
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Speaker 1: survive the production of such silly, ste stupid work. But
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Speaker 1: we must say that we are surprised that this book
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Speaker 1: has been brought out by the publishers in ordinary to
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Speaker 1: her Majesty the Queen. We do not know what the
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Speaker 1: duties attaching to this office are, but we should not
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Speaker 1: have thought the issuing of vulgar stories, but the Royal
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Speaker 1: Family was one of them. From Heather Hills is a
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Speaker 1: very pleasant reading. Indeed, it is healthy without being affected.
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Speaker 1: And though Missus Perks gives us many descriptions of Scotch scenery,
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Speaker 1: we are glad to say that she has not adopted
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Speaker 1: the common chromolithographic method of those popular and North British
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Speaker 1: novelists who have never yet fully realized the difference between
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Speaker 1: color and colors, and who imagine that by emptying a
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Speaker 1: paint box over every page, they can bring before us
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Speaker 1: the magic of mist and mountain, the wonder of sea
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Speaker 1: or glen. Missus Perks has a grace and delicacy of
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Speaker 1: touch that is quite charming, and she can deal with
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Speaker 1: nature without either botanizing or being blatant, which nowadays is
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Speaker 1: a somewhat rare accomplishment. The interest of the story centers
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Speaker 1: on Margaret Dalrymple, a lovely Scotch girl who is brought
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Speaker 1: to London by her aunt. Takes every one by storm
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Speaker 1: and falls in love with young Lord Erinwood, who is
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Speaker 1: on the brink of proposing to her when he is
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Speaker 1: dissuaded from doing so by a philosophic man of the
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Speaker 1: world who thinks that a Woodland Artemis is a bad
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Speaker 1: wife for an English peer, and that no woman who
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Speaker 1: is a habit of saying exactly what she means can
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Speaker 1: possibly get on in smart society. The would be philosopher
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Speaker 1: is ultimately hoist within his own petard as he falls
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Speaker 1: in love himself with Margaret Dalrymple. And as for the
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Speaker 1: weak young hero, he is promptly snatched up rather against
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Speaker 1: his will by a sort of Becky Sharp, who succeeds
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Speaker 1: in becoming Lady Erinwood. However, a convenient railway accident the
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Speaker 1: due and Machina of nineteenth century novels, carries miss Normana
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Speaker 1: Novello off, and everybody is finally made happy, except, of course,
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Speaker 1: the philosopher, who gets only a lesson where he wanted
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Speaker 1: to get love. There is just one part of the
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Speaker 1: novel to which we must take exception. The whole story
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Speaker 1: of Alice Morgan is not merely needlessly painful, but it
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Speaker 1: is of very little artistic value. A tragedy may be
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Speaker 1: the basis of a story, but it should never be
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Speaker 1: simply a casual episode, at least if it is so,
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Speaker 1: it entirely fails to produce any artistic effect. We hope too,
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Speaker 1: that in Missus Perk's next novel, she will not allow
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Speaker 1: her hero to misquote English poetry. This is a privilege
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Speaker 1: reserved for Missus malaprop. A constancy that lasts through three volumes.
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Speaker 1: Wiams is often rather tedious, so that we are glad
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Speaker 1: to make the acquaintance of Miss Lillian Euford, the heroine
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Speaker 1: of Missus Houston's A Heart on Fire. This young lady
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Speaker 1: begins by being desperately in love with mister Frank Thorburn,
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Speaker 1: a struggling schoolmaster, and ends by being desperately in love
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Speaker 1: with Colonel Dallas, a rich country gentleman who spends most
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Speaker 1: of his time and his money in preaching a crusade
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Speaker 1: against beer. After she gets engaged to the colonel, she
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Speaker 1: discovers that mister Thorburn is in reality Lord Netherby's son
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Speaker 1: and heir, and for the moment she seems to have
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Speaker 1: a true woman's regret at having given up a pretty title,
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Speaker 1: but all ends well, and the story is brightly and
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Speaker 1: pleasantly told. The Colonel is a middle aged Romeo of
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Speaker 1: the most impassioned character, and as it is his heart
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Speaker 1: that is on fire, he may serve as a psychological
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Speaker 1: pendant to de courante ANNs. Mister g Manville fens A
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Speaker 1: Bag of Diamonds belongs to the drury Lane school of
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Speaker 1: fiction and is a sort of fireside melodrama for the
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Speaker 1: family circle. It is evidently written to thrill Bayswater, and
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Speaker 1: no doubt Bayswater will be thrilled. Indeed, there is a
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Speaker 1: great deal that is exciting the book, and the scene
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Speaker 1: in which a kindly policeman assists two murderers to convey
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Speaker 1: their unconscious victim into a four wheeled cab under the
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Speaker 1: impression that they are a party of guests returning from
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Speaker 1: a convivial supper in Bloomsbury is quite excellent of its kind,
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Speaker 1: and on the whole not too improbable, considering that chilling
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Speaker 1: literature is always making demands on our credulity without ever
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Speaker 1: appealing to our imagination. The Great Hesper by mister Frank
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Speaker 1: Barrett has at least the merit of introducing into fiction
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Speaker 1: an entirely new character. The villain is Nyctalops, and though
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Speaker 1: we are not prepared to say that there is any
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Speaker 1: necessary connection between Nyctalopy and crime, we are quite ready
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Speaker 1: to accept mister Barrett's picture of Jan van Hook as
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Speaker 1: an interesting example of the modern method of dealing with life.
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Speaker 1: For pathology is rapidly becoming the basis of sensational literature,
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Speaker 1: and in art, as in politics, there is a great
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Speaker 1: future for monsters. What in Nyctalops is? We leave mister
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Speaker 1: Barrett to explain his novel belongs to a class of
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Speaker 1: book that many people might read once for curiosity, but
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Speaker 1: nobody could read a second time for pleasure. A Day
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Speaker 1: After the Fair is an account of a holiday tour
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Speaker 1: through Scotland taken by two young barristers, one of whom
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Speaker 1: rescues a pretty girl from drowning, falls in love with her,
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Speaker 1: and is rewarded for his heroism by seeing her married
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Speaker 1: to his friend. The idea of the book is not bad,
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Speaker 1: but the treatment is very unsatisfactory, and combines the triviality
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Speaker 1: of the tourist with the dullness of good intentions. Mister
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Speaker 1: Winter is always amusing and audacious, though we cannot say
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Speaker 1: that we entirely approve of the names he gives to
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Speaker 1: his stories. Boodle's Baby was a masterpiece, but whop La
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Speaker 1: was a terrible title, and that imp is not much better.
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Speaker 1: The book, however, is undoubtedly clever, and the imp in
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Speaker 1: question is not a nyctolops nor specimen for a traveling museum,
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Speaker 1: but a very pretty girl who, because an officer has
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Speaker 1: kissed her without any serious matrimonial intentions, exerts all her
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Speaker 1: fascinations to bring the unfortunate loveless to her feet, and,
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Speaker 1: having succeeded in doing so, promptly rejects him with a
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Speaker 1: virtuous indignation that is as delightful as it is out
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Speaker 1: of place. We must confess that we have a good
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Speaker 1: deal of sympathy for Driver Dallas of the Royal Horse,
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Speaker 1: who suffers fearful agonies at what he imagines is a
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Speaker 1: heartless flirtation on the part of the lady of his dreams.
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Speaker 1: But the story is told from the IMP's point of view,
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Speaker 1: and as such we must accept it. There is a
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Speaker 1: very brilliant description of a battle in the Soudan, and
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Speaker 1: the account of barrack life is of course admirable, so admirable. Indeed,
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Speaker 1: is it that we hope that mister Winter will soon
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Speaker 1: turn his attention to new topics and try to handle
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Speaker 1: fresh subjects. It would be sad if such a clever
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Speaker 1: and observant writer became merely the Garrison Hack of literature.
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Speaker 1: We would also earnestly beg mister Winter not to write
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Speaker 1: foolish prefaces about unappreciative critics, For it is only mediocrities
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Speaker 1: and old maids who consider it a grievance to be misunderstood.
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Speaker 1: End of Section forty seven Some novels