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��Book Notice.
��BOOK NOTICE.
��I"ki,i,()W-Traveli,krs: a Story. l>y Ed- ward Fuller.
\\\\\ Mr. P'uller should have taken the pains to style his book a " story," we surely have not the least idea. No one would be likely to mistake it for an epic, a drama, or a philosophical treat- ise. We do not understand Mr. Fuller's object. Possibly he objects to the word "novel," or "romance," and uses " story " in preference as a milder or humbler term. It is certainly mild enough, — the story, we mean. Dish- water couldn't well be weaker. One needs a bottle of ammonia while reading it, to keep awake. It is a combination of Sue and Professor Ingraham (not the author of the " Prince of the House of David," but his son), much diluted. It has the insi})idity of Ingraham and the tiresome narration of Sue. Is it, in- deed, a "story"? In our opinion, " Fellow-Travellers " bears the same relation to a story, which a Turkey carpet bears to a picture. There are colors in the Turkey carpet of which a picture might be made. So are there words in Mr. Fuller's book, which, when disjiosed in certain orders and combi- nations, would make an excellent story ; but, as they now stand, they make only a vague, wearisome, rambling composi- tion. — • a rhapsody, without plot, char- acter, painting, strong situations, or graphic description of any sort. He should have written a " strange story," or "an uncommon story : " that would have expressed something.
We really did our best to read the " story," but the dulness on every page exacted a vast expenditure of nervous energy before we finished it. The characters are ordinary, commonplace people. We do not believe there are half as many inane, wearisome people in all Salem (the locale of the story) as are in this book. Miss Mira Damon has the most flesh and blood ; but she evi- ently is not the author's favorite, for he makes the hero, Winslow Carver, marry Grace Winthrop. There is a breath of the Puritans in the names ; but the
��breath is very faint, and the maidens are no more Puritans than they are any thing else.
The dialogue is uniformly tame and uninteresting' Very little is said to for- ward the movement of the " story." The following is a very good illustration of Mr. Fuller's style : —
" ' I wish people made less talk over us young people,' the girl continued. ' They always fasten one to — to the wrong one.'
" ' Oh ! '
" ' I think he liked Grace Winthrop very much.' Mrs. Elsmore pursed uj) her lips. She would feel bitterly toward Grace, in case Winslow never married Fanny.
" ' Oh, she is not at all the girl for him ! She is too young, and not at all his style.' "
Other portions remind us of the dialogue in a " New-York Weekly " detective story. The following is a sample : —
" ' Whew,' whistled Jonder. 'So you know Ike Damon ? '
" ' I didn't say I knew him.'
"'Wal, I do.'
" ' I ran across him in New York. He has lived there several years, you know.'
" ' How do New York folks take to him?'
" How do Posett folks take to him ? ' retorted Murse with a sinister grin."
Does this not read as if taken right out of the columns of " Steve's Pard ; Or, the One-handed Detective of Five Points " ?
And so we go on over three hundred, or, to be exact, three hundred and forty- one pages, until Mr. Fuller tells us that we are fellow-travellers no longer, with a seeming tone of regret that few will appreciate. To us it was a most pleas- ing declaration ; and if, we are ever again "fellow-travellers" with Mr. Ful- ler, we trust that the skies will be fairer, and the summer woods more green than ever. F. M. C.
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