BEARTX
By H. de Balzac.
London : Macmillan and Co. Danedin : James Horsburgh.
We confess ourselves unable to dißCOver any special merit, either in matter or manner, which should recommend " Beatrix " as . a book suitable for inclusion in the colonial library. There are books whose actual theme is lost sight of in the supreme mastery of tho handling, and whose perusal we urge, even though they revolt as, simply as instances of literary perfection. In " Beatrix " we have nothing of this kind. The spectacle is a simple one in French literature — that of a fascinating woman who uses her position as a married woman to concede herself perfect liberty as to her lovers — such is Beatrix, Countess Rochefide. Calyste Gaenic, one of her lovers, breaks with her and marries a very sweet and virtuous, but perfectly uninteresting, girl — S*bine.
Beatrix sets herself to detach Calyste from bis home, his yourg wife and child, and she succeeds. The end of the story is at once feeble and unnatural, incapable of awakening any other emotion than irritable disgust. Calyste returns to bis wife, who thanks heaven for such happine.?s ; Beatrix is reconciled to her husband, whose life has been as bad as her own ; and all this occurs amid details of avarice and lust which are as unsavoury as it is possib'e to conceive.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW18970930.2.316
Bibliographic details
Otago Witness, Issue 2274, 30 September 1897, Page 52
Word Count
221BEARTX Otago Witness, Issue 2274, 30 September 1897, Page 52
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