REVIEW.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 297, 10 January 1879, Page 17

REVIEW.

The Australian Ladies' Annual, edited by F. R. C.Hopkins. ''An Australian work by Australian ladies," says the editor in his preface, will, I trust, be considered a novelty if not a success." To be a novelty without being a success would, we think, be but little meritorious. We doubt if even the Athenians, desirous as they were of ever hearing something new, were totally indifferent as to the nature of the news coveted by them, or would have welcomed the report of any failure merely because it was novel. In the present instance, however, we are not oast upon so doubtful a circumstance in seeking to congratulate those interested especially in colonial literature on an accession to its province. We may truly say that the Australian Ladies' Annual is not only a novelty but a success as well. We confess that all our prejudices were, at first sight, enlisted against this publication. E&vtwns deluxe brought out at Christmas we have been sufficiently informed by experience to be worth so much as their tinted paper, gilt bordering, and elegant binding were value for, but no more. Unless they were new editions of the writings of eminent authors, as it sometimes happens, they were, so far as we have seen, generally a mere issue of literary garbage. We were particularly well pleased, then, to find the present instance an exception to the rule, for we are amongst those who take an especial interest in intellect as represented in these colonies of ours, and although we honestly confess the direction pursued by it in this Annual is in some cases not that which we favour or approve, it still is satisfactory to find that Australian ladies are capable of holding their own amongst the sisterhood of literary talent and cultivation scattered throughout the world. The story, or Vr m Bketc °» yt^ 1 whi °h the publication opens •' The Rubria Ghost," by "Tasma," is one for example, which might claim admittance into any periodical of the day. It undoubtedly displays talent of a high order ; the subject, though a commonplace one, is originally dealt with, and there is a completeness in the method of its treatment that is particularly pleasing. The fault of the sketch is a certain suspicion of smart writing," especially at the commencement, where also there occurs the grave error of attributing, albeit smartly, to the ghost of Hamlet s father a fondness for "a little buffoonery in a quiet way." aT?S? a * est we "^ unable to see its point, and it is, otherwise, decidedly a mistake. The only approach to buffoonery traceable as connected with the appearance of this ghost are in the words addressed to it, when commanding Marcellusand Horatio to swear, by Hamlet, and they are a most weird joking, evidently spoken under the influence of irrepressible excitement and the chill of horror. The morality of this sketch to which we allude is, further, objectionable. This the writer indeed acknowledges, but the '• pale reflection of a moral" offered b y v r 1! » atonement hardly mends the matter. None but one savagely celibate could maintain that morality would be avenged or vindicated by a man's thrashing his wife. Another paper by this writer " Concerning the Forthcoming Melbourne Cup," is also very cleyer. There is a certain quaintness about it that confers upon it a special character; ?he lady who writes it is, however, evidently wholly at one with the spirit of the age. If she cherish a separate philosophy, and we are not sure that traces of such may not be discovered in her writing, it is that a better state of things than that which actually exists is conceivable, but that the present is nevertheless good enough and thoroughly enjoyable. The second insertion in the Annual is a poem 'To My Husband, with the present of a Swiss Clock," of which tne best we can say is that it would much better have been reserved enfamille. It would show to advantage written out in a neat hand *S J**i Sted Bvmm etrically somewhere on the outside of the timepiece alluded to, where it would doubtless meet with its due meed of admiration from sympathetic friends and neighbours. Amongst its more remarkable lines are the following :— *' Nor can we win us back our youth . , By hurricanea of sighing. This is decidedly suggestive of that incubus on the servants' hall, who was apostrophised by Sam Weller under the title "Young Grampus." A poem of a different class is " By the Camp Fire," by Mrs. Cross, in wmcn we find a beautiful and true description of night in the Australian bush, and some thoughts worthy of attention.. In Married for His Money," Clara E. Cheeseman gives a good-humored and amusing satire on high society in Auckland. This lady is decidedly improved in her writing ; although her style continues abrupt, and somewhat suggestive of Mr. F.s aunt with her favourite remark, " There's milestones on the Dover Road," still her incidents are fairly imagined, and she has some talent for the delineation of c J?** acter - If her v few of society in the North be just the bugbear of bir George Grey is already rampant, and were it not necessary to prevent the spread or continuance of the nauseous folly it would be hardly worth while to withhold from stupidity, pretension, and insolence the titles desired by them as their crown. The volume closes with an interesting paper, "Heroines of Fiction," by Annie C. JLionneUy, m which the merits of the lady novel-writers of the present day are reviewed, and on the whole justly. For example we may readily admit that the novels of Miss Braddon, though sensational are not calculated to work evil by affording precedents for ill-behaviour. As the writer observes, Lady Audley or Aurora Floyd stripped of her beauty would be a very uninteresting person, and even with all the aid lent by " feathery golden curls," or "dark flashing orbs," we hold that it is quite impossible to sympathise with either of these unfortunate or criminal dames, and no one in their senses would think of copying them. Again, we fully agree with the writer, when she says, speaking of Mrs. Henry Wood, " Lady Isabel, though she does repent, (through many chapters most trying to the nerves) is not a pleasant character to contemplate," and, again, " One passion is as bad as another if it leads to the same result— disgrace. As to Lady Isbel's repentance, it is simply so much sickly, unwholesome sentiment, rendering the character one which should be shelved with Mrs. HaUer and Camille." The method in which the authoress in question manages her composition is also very well described, nothing can be more expressiveof her peculiartalentthan the following, '• Shehaslittle originality ; but, in lieu of this, possesses a regular stock of materials which she mixes up as an apothecary would bis drugs, the materials always remaining the same, but the outward forms slightly altertd/i

To " Onida" and George Eliot Miss Donnelly allots the comparatively large space that their fame as writers deserves. She is clearly dazzled by the brilliancy of the former, for it cannot be denied that the talents of this writer are, -unhappily, brilliant in the extreme, and although she admits that much said in condemnation of the authoress is true, she still desires to defend her in some degree, " Many of her novels," she says, " are pictures of 'fast' life, and it is said in them she represents vice too openly, and does not dress it in the usual graceful garments ! But granted that she is not a good modiste in the art of arranging the drapery in order to partially hide the figure one knows to be beneath is not this more a merit than otherwise ? " Ouida" never represents crime in an attractive form, and does not gloss over wickedness to make it look like virtue." It remains, however, true that pitch in the touching must defile, although its native blackne sbe made never so apparent. Unfortunately to be attractive vice requires no false colouring, of their own nature mankind are inclined towards it, and " evil communication," whether it be brought about by clever writing or otherwise, cannot fail to corrupt " good manners." Even although we admit the truth of the writer's argument, " A diamond is not the less a diamond because it is set in brass," we affirm that a diamond itself may be purchased too dearly at the cost to the purchaser of becoming infected by the poisonous rust given off by the brass in which the gem is set. The praise accorded to the works of George Eiiot is more legitimate, and requires no defence. Here we thoroughly go with the writer, and in the pages that follow we find but two points to which we can take exception. First we think she leans, with a woman's common inclination, too hardly on her sex. Speaking of Esther Lyon and of her sacrifices made for the sake of Felix Holt, she says that " Ouida" would have drawn the character differently. " Esther would have grasped the glittering prize of wealth, name, and position, would have donned the silk attire, and have sent the Loamshire Radical to find consolation in his politics. But the question then arises, which picture would be the truer to nature ? Ido not say that there are not women in the world who would act as Esther Lyon did; but I am strongly inclined to think that the character, as ' Ouida' would have drawn it, would find more prototypes in real life." The writer then refers her readers each to his own experience for proofs of the truth of her conclusion. But surely most of us who know anything of the world, relying rather on retrospect than the speculation proposed to us, must answer that here she is astray. Heartless marriages there no doubt are in abundance, but the foolish ones predominate largely. This at least is the lesson taught us by the experience to which we ha ire been referred. Again we think this writer would require too much of Gwendolyn Harleth. On the whole we think her reading of the character correct ; but to have expected this girl to give up Grandcourt, under the circumstances in which she was placed, would have been to overtax her powers. She was forced against her will into the marriage. To have held out any further against it would for her have been martyrdom. And even secular martyrdom requires a special grace, the possession of which may claim our admiration, but whose want we are hardly authorised to condemn. On the whole, however — as we said — the review is a just one ; and, although rather hurried, it is well and pleasantly written, and displays considerable critical acumen.