THE CHOIR INVISIBLE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2319, 11 August 1898, Page 46

THE CHOIR INVISIBLE.

A TEW WORDS ABOUT A NOTED BOOK, BY "R. B."

This beautiful book deserves to be widely read, for no American author since Nathanial Hawthorne has beaten out a truer, more engrrssing, or more wholesome story of the struggles of the American pioneers than Mr James Lane Allen in " The Choir Invisible." The title fits the book excellently, though possibly it might have attracted more readers if it had been styled " The Ordeal of John Gray. " The book is sure to be we : l recommended by those who read it, be-e.'-use it is impregnated with that strenuous vitality which we find in the books destined to live. We turn from the glut of ephemeral meretricious books — and their name is legion — to o book like " The Choir Invisible," and feel that we have discovered another beautiful oasis in the desert. The book, however, is not too fine. Mr Allen gives us plenty of incident, and appeals powerfully to our synipivthies. Let us hope that some day a writer wil arise in New Zealand who will' give us a book about our pioneers as worthy <>f mention as "The Choir Invisible." Mr Allen's book (which is dedicated to his mother) is prefaced by a quotation from " George Eliot."

The opening chapters take the reider to Kentucky in the year 1795. We see the people as they lived and loved, we see the ■wilderness being reclaimed and we see glimpset! of the working of those moulding influences which are potent factors in the development of families and nations. Then the descriptions of old Kentucky are so concise aikl vivid that they have quite a charm of (her oAvn. attributes which should win the approval of many readers. The hero, John Gray, is schoolmaster at Lexington. This is what the author says just before he introduces his hero : " But there is something lo.'t of him (the schoolmaster), though more than a century has passed away : something that has wandered far down the course of lime to us like the faint summer fragrance of a young tree long since fallen dead in its wintered forest . . . like an old melody surviving on and on in the air without any instrument, without any string,?." John Gray fqllfl in love with a beautiful but keaxt-

less girl, who jilts him. This, however, ' though- a severe ordeal to him at the time, wis really calf love; and when his eyes were optned he soon recovered. At page 138 we hay-- a wonderfully thrilling account of an attack made upon John Gray by a hungry cougT\ which had wandered from the forest and crept in at the open door of the schoolmaster's cabin. Tho man was terribly mutilated, and nearly lost his life. A friend, however, came on the scene in time. A long illness followed, during which he hid much attention. The beautiful wife of Major Falconer nursed him, cheered him, and brought lum books — among them Mallory's " Mort d' Arthur." This book had a surprising effect on him. Then he falLs in love with the beautiful, gentle woman who had been so kind to him, and we. see the fierce struggle which goes on in his mind between love and duty. The hitter, however, triumphs, and he goes away without making any si#n, though his friend's wife h-id half divined his secret. Their lives arc henceforth apart,. Gray marries, becomes famous, and at the end of the book we find him sendin ; his eldest boy to Kentucky to the woman whom he has evidently never censed to love j iiii'l rospect. There is a good deal of humour in the. book, and many original characters, among whom may be cited Gray's friend, the. clergvmau, who is rather eccentric on two topics — Calvin and women — but a fine, kindly soul for all that In conclusion it may safely be said that ''The Choir Invisible" is a book that will si and reprmvl. s>ml aho that it deserves a place in out libraries alongside " The Scarlet Letter."