The Popular Modern Novel.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 203, 14 May 1887, Page 7

The Popular Modern Novel.

Nothing typifies an age like the literature of the period. Smollett and Fielding ,give u» an excellent insight into the modes and tastes of the Eighteenth Century, and in like manner the novel of to-day is supposed to reflect the Nineteenth Cent/iry. " We have read a good many of these works lately, and the following may be taken as a fail abstract of the style and matter of the majoi ity/'— " Moonshine."

Chapters I to G D tisv Buttercup is a young, impassioned, count ly maiden, "meditating fiee." -She lives w ith her Avidowed mother, who is only foiiy, and young at that. Daisy leads Ouid:i and Dauclet. both having been pieviuusly well-thumbed by the mother.

Chapters (J to 11. Daisy ha« an indeh'nabJe longing to a isit London. She buys a penny society papei, and feels Mire that amid the gilded domes of the metropolis she will find her fate in the shape of a young loid. She Avaltzes well. Has not the squire told her so ? About this time a mysterious stranger, oi magnificent proportions and piercing eye, appears on the scene- it is her fate.

Chapters 12 to 18. It is difficult to know whether the mys torioi: , .stranger, whose name is Mr Bar Sinister, is attracted most by the widow or hei daughter. We look in at two humble London borne* one in Bermondsey, the other at Highgate, and see his two wives and families, each ignorant of the other's existence and there we find a clue to the puzzle. Mr Bar Sinister will marry both widow and daughter.

Chapters 18 to 21. The so:i of the old Squhe, who has been "plucked" at the University because he had read too hard, now tin ns up. He has applied for a commission in the (XfDtb, and it as bra\c a:- a lion, yet the examination — ah! hedaie not face that ; but Mr Bar Sinister agrees for a consideration to cc him through. The consideration is ten games of a hundred up per diem, at a guinea pc. wine.

Chapters 21 to 24. While rhiis nefarious scheme is in full blast, B«u Sinister 1 * two wives die— one in Bermondsey Workhouse, the other in St. Luke's Madhouse, whither she has been transfer; ed by a.,, order of a magistrate, who ha.s once been in a workhouse himself, and. knowing what it means, has compassion on the woman. Mrs Buttercup, Daisy's mother, come* up to London on a day Exhibition, and casually drops in at St. Lwke's Madhous-, which her grandfather had supplied with bread before the (German invasion began. She hears the dying ravings of Mr Bdi Sinister's second wife. She fallsin a lit, and is taken to a police station for being drunk and disorderly.

Chapters 24 to 27, Upon being released she tinds the excursion has leturned without her. What shall .she do ? Penniless and alone in the great metropolis — if she only possessed the money to start a potato can she might support nature until better days dawned. Alas ! there is no such luck. She sinks fainting on London Bridge — too faint to climb the 1 parapet and cast herself and her woes into oblivion, and is taken to Bermond.sey Woikhou.se, where she find* herself next bed to Mrs Bar Sinister No. 1.

Chapters 27 to 30. This gives her renewed strength, and she walks 217 miles to her home in the old country village in 24 hours, tjius beting record time. She arrives at a supreme moment. The Squire's son has gambled away his patrimony, and Bar Sinister has jufet wagered £5,000 on his making an easy losing hazard, .lust as he lifts the cue and all hold their breath for the decisive stroke Mrs Buttercup enters, and shrieks. out the names of Annabel and Sarah. They are the names ot his two deserted wives. The cue drops from his nervelesc grasp, but he has ripped the cloth and the young Squire falls down on his knees in a corner and puts back tne revolver with which he intended to end the game into his great coat pocket for a fnture opportunity.

Chapters 36 t« 93 Mrs Buttercup and the Squire's son, having seen Bar Siniste oarefully conveyed to the asylum, now ]• ">ceed to Buttercup ' Cottage. She is mfc ned on the way of the young man's etern ' devotion to Daisy, and that ihat young lady reciprocates his affection, but he made it a condition that her mamma's, cqnsent is first obtained. The door of Buttercup Cottage is open ; the rooms are empty - cleaned out. The local pantechnico* man informs them that Daisy hjis removed to London with the gardener from the rectory, wk > has left behind him a wife and fourteen children.

Chapters 33 to 36 Bar Sinister is discharged from the asylum cured. Daisy has been' deserter! by the gardener, and both apply to the 1 Bowstreet magistrate for relief out of the poor box. The gardener's wife and her children, and Bar Sinister*? children by his two wives all apply for 'relief at the same . moment, arid the magistrate asks for pro.-' 1 tection, as this jis' beyond him.-., i,

, Chapters sq to 10. „,,( ,■< ,' „{• '< Bar Sinister jnauies IXnisy, who gtill keeps up her dancing and goes on' the Frivolity stage.' 'the 'gardener joins the ' of the Kew' Conservatory ( 'and "is 1 .never seen, again. ',Mn3 Buttercup, becomes 0 ■ ttiq bride of an elderly bishop, and ''oli^erVes'that the, un,ion,is somewhat incongruous, but it all 1 comes aboutith'rough the ■influence o# the comic operas. •' s Th'6 >^iYii'6 J s'\ son inhoritis his fatjicrs and diosiai • ; i billiard' marker. , ( The , author, apologise^. for j bod y ) *» d the .readey closes', $c, b'op£ and tells her v »fri6nds tthatt t *t is quite too ', 'utterly, sweet; which 'catfs'es k ruYi'fdf Ib'hfo f blie \ . iThi&is.wka^iwediave come»i) fa t ab^splpfcelys let anyone 'deny it \y|i<9 ,o^%^ „ — "Moonshine."