MARION CRAWFORD'S LAST WORK.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13603, 11 December 1909, Page 7

MARION CRAWFORD'S LAST WORK.

"Stradella' , is the last of t"wo novels ■ which Marion Crawford left unpublished when, to the grief of all admirers oi sound literary workmanship, ho was taken from us. -Faithful unto death"' j to his beloved Italy, he ha.s given us ; an old Italian love tale, tho scene being laid in Venice and Rome, in the 17t\i century. The Senator Michele Pigna- ' ver, a childless widower, and a per- \ sonujie of wealth and worth in Venire, ; made up his mind to marry his nioce. | Ortonsia, a.s soon as her education was. j completed, lie being fifty years of age, ' and she only eighteen. In an unguard- ; cd moment he made arrangements for | the celebrated Maestro Alejandro | Stradella, then a handsome young j man of five and twenty or so, but tho j greatest musician and composer in Italy, to teach her singing. " The result might have been easily anticipated by anyone but an elderly senator wrapped up in his own conceit, drtensia elopes w'th her music teacher, but before they are far on the way. he is arrested on suspicion of being a coiner from .Sicily. The lovers being thus parted, the story becomes brisk and animated in its record of intrigue, incident and adventure. Various historical personages flit across the stage, including a benignant Pope, and two wonderful bravi take a prominent part in flic action. There is a touch of pathos in the concluding pages, where tho author, speaking of these tame bravi, remarks—"But whether Tromuin and Clambardclla will over stroll into the storyteller's dreamland again, and act other parts, he himseli cannot surely tell, nor does he knew whether they will be welcome if they come." We* now know, alas, that they will not re-oppear. They are two such quaint ruffians that the reader will certainly part from them -with regret. j (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd. 2s i Gd).