"OUIDA."

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 10, 10 May 1881, Page 4

"OUIDA."

livour cattle recent ; messages! was' : announced the death .of* Louisa de, •la R^mce, tiie jiapttl&rt nov^Jtsfc, fetter: ; known by her no/u ' de glume of "Ouida." Of the deceased 1 writer's personal history very little is known, the private ineid€Bts^f^er^M|fe' having been kept from tlie' eye-and' ear of the' world with, perhaps, even more rejticence than was shown in the case of George .. Eliot. It is Hnqwn, however", ; that, : although ,of French extraction^ | she was born in England — at Bury r St. Edmunds— in the; year 1840,1 so thai? she was 41 years of age ;at the time, .of her death. She soon showed signs, pf ; a taste for literature, and having re« moved to London, 'where; she lived with" her mother and grandmother, began; to, write for periodicals before stye hademerged from her teens. - Her first novel appealed ■in " Colbo/ufn's Ne'wJ Monthly Magazine." It was entitled* " Granville de Vigne, a Tale of ' :) M& Day," imd was subspcmen^ lished under the tille !) d£ "field iir pßondage." " Strathmore" was- -written - In 1865, and this was followed at intervals of about a year by ",Gh^pdos,"< ■" Cecil CastlemaiTie'ff' 1 , tricotrin," . "Uni^er; /Two, J||ags^ 'f e I*uck," and a number of other works, jail more or less familiar. *■ tp noy^t-, readers. Her ' latest wot&- w was L *n^--titled " Moths," and gave a somewhat revolting picture of what purported to be Londion j3oc,iesY,,bu<i w4u<&;wsiM4,'ty*r overdriwri ev6ttif-it tfeyfffltitihd V - £ presehtMther; iworst^ %i<ie' j 6f /f lhigh life w in the.f^ti-ojjpiis.; : pjW»^f^[g] aaye Attained ja^iw:ide amount of attention among axiQrtain" class, pf, tjie^loyers, of lighit reading bat ele fe-tto^a^fter jibat is either rrlikefy>; b¥ to possess more *than r a i very evanescent kind otfom. l r l||nrou;d^dl§4u|t()9] imagine a greater contrast.betwje^nL two ivriters ihan thafe iw^ob between ihe au^lior of 'fl^btns,'' ana, the, rgfLftedr lady who h ? a^ giveit ;tts'"Adanf^e^3, vS and wliiG ; has also; lately 1 dejjtfried ; from our midst. -Th^ : purifc£ ; of tone peryading the Wrlt|ngs Q^thy slatW.te Q»] different from ; t^ i pri)j;ie,Bitj^ v^wptuous Spirit of Oui4a'Biwo3pk8 :i a3' > ate the fresh Country sqenery^and' the eim,pteraatur»l- t character^, ; which; G^or^e", Eltot r de- f and de^ctfl?ei» ( ki <$0y fto / ttithen i the and ' tftw'dt^ntesk ;6^ '^he surJoundings through 1 whidh J Otiida 1 makes impossible heroes strut theatrically^ iiaying and doing impossible things. There is one t ; redeonitng i feattfrc -lyit Ouida's writings which stands' out very yrominently;- saA- vrWsli-^Al^SlWSftr excite respect. We refer tolwjb&tied cruelty; /hi* 1 " €hy % TfdiM^r lo n dunW dnimals-^a %ntre<r wgiclr is " especially Exemplified in "Puck." As a writer* generally, howev^r7|kb?rjEr^s tto" that, although by^o|mea^S?|den^ent,in ability of a higli EX)iJaer|-JBafl,^ oWesLllerpopularity rather to A her T habit pf pander-!, ingHo^ mdi*!)id ; IbVe oiP'M^ -(ie^sati4m4!^ find prurient, thsxk'tfi^j?^&q%?*ssd *ierit in her writin^si • "Itt- fcoMttsi'oli,