REVIEW.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2964, 31 July 1888, Page 2

REVIEW.

TUU AUCIONAUTS OF SOUTH ÜBEHTV ''- < (Bret Harto). ?j

Mmis S $ W. Mack}/, Jloohelks, <- Luinbhm-Qmi/, Wtlhmjton.

"Not ninny months vbefore,;my';^| ; friend's death," writes Forster. in > life ot Charles Dickenß, ha (Diokens)j;??f| had sunt mo two Overlaid Moiitldieso?s continuing two sketches by a American writer far away iuCalifornia/:f§f: "The Luck of Boaring Camp," and J"' " Tho Outcasts of Pokor Eht," which lie hud found suchsubtlo strokes.-fp of character as he had.not. anywhere "■■;. ifi| elso in late years discovered; tile niau-,,;?;.|| nor resembling himself, but thynatter'.! •:• -ij fresh to a degree that Imd prised him; the painting-in all'respects:;;;;'' masterly; and the wild rude thingv; painted a quite wonderful reality. I--;' havo already known him more honestly • moved." ~ W Long years have elapsed since Dickens hailed tho advent of his., transatlantic brother genius.'ln'those .]- intervening years tho hand that pro* •; duced "The Luck of Roaring Oarap".., •'■ Ims neither been idle nor liqb it lost its' / cunning. "The Argonauts of-North : Liberty," Bret Harte's latest work, V, is before us and in it there is no failing - oil'either in pathos or humor.. The - humour lias become uioro mellowed,''''' poihaps, and the pathos it may be a trifle less pathetic, but the delineation of cluiracfcev is as vigorous and as fresh ■/.,. as ever. The Argouants is a study of : ' female character and we are not aware ',-: that wo have ever met tho heroine, a '.- Mrs Blaudford, in fiction before Sho - Ins certain resemblances, it is true, to.-V l other creations of celebrated novelists, : Now and-again she reminds us oori r Tlmckeray's.Becky Sharp. She has tho '< same marvellous power over men,/v similar powers of self-repression, and iV and much ot the same selGslw, but, -, Becky is always a Bohemian, Mrs ! Ulantlford to the last a Purjtaa.-oi' ■% Puritans. Becky again intrig*J|with','i utmost subtlety and labor for place,'j power, and'wealth, obtains them, arid;then permits her inmate cussedness to--; mar all her foil. Mrs.Bedford's"; objects are altogether different, for she , : - novor drops her mask, and is always to f 1 the world the pink of propriety,' and, fh to her.husbaud at least painfully chaste;' ; Again, Becky was roared in an almokw phero of Bohemiamsm; and hated and;'.; laughed to scorn the, word "respect'', ability." only assuming-decorum as a"" mask, whilo Mrs Blandford is brought .• up by and is lierself a : Presbyterian- -", Pharisee of the coldest and most'' deadly order, and though fthe human nature within her takes herfpr-a time;''•' : - ; ' away from this grim and frosty atrnos-:. phero, she returns to it as naturally as '\7i a dove to its cote..; In uootlierwork V by the same author-is his' power 'of sketching a scene or charaoterbMfcw vivid words-by a tnero Wrn;Mtt#' wrist as it wore -so noticeableanpß: ■% book under notice, -which modest size, fells the Btqry ;: itss ■■',-,,. intended to tell wioh all the complete-: : nessand none of the prolixity: of conventional three volume novels. the rest "Tho Argouants of NorW:§fe Liberty" has sofllcient 'incident' sensationalism in it to Batisfy oxacting, and tho only regret we in closing tho book was that there wm-Sss not more of jt, • ' *'f:&J&|