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Remarks on "Ethel Churchill," with Extracts.
"Ethel Churchill," as a whole, is not marked by a concentration of individual interest like "Francesca Carrara." It rather resembles "Romance and Reality" in its detached sketches and episodes; the scenes are, however, more highly wrought than in the former work, and the whole is pervaded with a richer colouring. With the many, probably, "Ethel Churchill" would be the favourite. There is less of the ideal, more of the actual; less of the poet's inner and abstract life, with more of the outward world’s experience and ways; fewer of the beings of the mind, with more of life's every-day characters; while these are depicted rather by the lights of the author's genius, its fancy, wit, and acute perception, than marked by any of its usual shadows of poetical melancholy and sad reflection. The atmosphere of the gay world has steeped these pages in its roseate hues, and we everywhere find the echoes of fashionable circles: many of the delineations of society are strikingly brilliant, and bear witness both to the artist's philosophical and actual knowledge of the world. Wit sheds its brilliance over many a page, though sometimes varied with a shade of satire,—gentle, indeed, yet how truthful!—cast over all from the heart's conviction of the world's utter vanity.
These volumes may truly be called a portrait gallery of characters, which for the most part are admirable specimens of their respective classes. With the
