THE BIRD OF PARADISE: A ROMANCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2203, 21 May 1896, Page 42

THE BIRD OF PARADISE: A ROMANCE .

By William Henry Dutton, Dunedin : S. N. Br»wn and Co., printers and publisher*. A brief notice of ho voluminous a romance as "The Bird of Paradise" is extremely difficult, inasmuch as, like many unit books, it contains characters and incidents sufficient i to .set up two or three modern novels, and. perhaps as many "sketches " and " episodea." Serious "oritioium is out of the question. ,We . content ourselves with indicating the lines of the .story. The scene, we are expressly reminded, is the Uaited States of America. The incidents are furnfrhf d by the history of an Eogh'sh family of eruij>rantf, the Whitworths. Of this family Miriam WhUworth, the mother, is Che good acgi-1 ; ihe eldest bod, Eugene, is the hope ->nd stay and pride ; while his ycunger brother, Ambrose, furnishes the shadows to the picture and enacts the part' of commonplace drunken ruffian. Eugene is a clever, rising young doctor, when he marries a beautiful young girl, Marvel Gmld, the " Bird of Paradise." Thenceforth the life of the .hero is rendered miserable by the faults of .bis wife and the vices of his brother, to say nothing of the unmerited persecution of many other coarse, unpleasant, and more or le*s vicious persons. Amid loss, persecution, misunderstanding, and dibillutionment the blameless Eugene walks, j a modern martyr. From the beginning the young wife proves both jealous and bus» picious, "Little unconsidered trifles that not one woman ia a thousand would notice Msrrel would magnify a hundredfold, and in tbe he&fc of her temper she would cast them in his teeth as if they 1 were the bioct atrocious crimes., Eugene,, without replying, would slam the door, j )in the party aX the Seven Stars Hotel, and make that; little card-room bis home foi the rest of the night. ... He perceived the littleness of her little mind, aad relented it by withdrawing the former extravagance of his attention." . . . "This is the cross wo must bear; the sin and the swift retribution." j Nor does the advent of the first-born smooth out the tangled skein, though we are told that the child was " from the day of her benign birth the apphj of her father'B eye, and the sweetest treasure which be ever possessed." Marvel makes but a selfish preoccupied mother when once the novelty of the new toy has worn off. and ao her father, old Julian J^sepbi G"iild, tbe Coal King, gives her a handrome villa, Marvel order* her life with very little regard to her husband's wishes or consideration for his interests. Two other children are born as the years pass on, and the younger of these two dies in bis baby* hood, bat all these family ties and associations fail to draw the ill-assorted husband and wife together. Marvel's father dies — " after upending nearly 50 years in the discovery and upheaval of coal, and the absorp. | tion of fortunes by new inventions in machinery." The wealth which Marvel inherits hastens the catastrophe, and the energies of both husband and wife are strained to their utmost to effect a life-long separation. This part of the book is not pleasant reading. The preparation of evidence, the scenes ia court, the insinuations and accusations, the cross-examining of witnesses, the bnllying of counsel — all is given with a detail that weara a terrible aspect of reality. The one bright; redeeming theme which never fails to shine from the surrounding gloom and misery ia the love of the UDbappy Eugene for his children. Tbe closing paragraph of the book describes tho death< of Eugene, which the ordinary novel reader woald no doubt have; welcomed earlier, for in these ' days <we are imbued with the idea that life is brief indeed, and that tbe wit that suits ag best; is the wit whose soul it brevity. The most serious drawback to the euccesi of the book with the public Is the extreme verbosity of ita etyle; less command of