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Art. II. The Discarded Son. By R. M. Roche, 2 vols. 12mo.
The first volume of the Discarded Son would have formed an agreeable separate story. At the end of it Elizabeth might easily have been married to Delacour; and enough of wonder, of curiosity, and of suspence would have been excited by the imaginary ghost, by the incomprehensible Mr Eaton, and by the elopement into the highlands, to support an unwearied attention. - After the sixth chapter, which relates the catastrophe in the chapel near Glengary, the story flags. The originally principal characters are superseded by new and less interesting personages; the marvellous and striking incidents of the commencement are supplanted by more ordinary and insignificant occurrences; [667] the conduct of the agents grows less rational and probable, less delicate and attaching; until at length a general indifference, a comprehensive lassitude, overspreads the persevering reader.
We recommend to those who have recourse to the circulating library for their habitual amusement, quietly and contentedly to stop at the end of the first volume; to imagine the heroine duly united to her lover, and not disappointed for a series of years, until her brother Osmond is also mature for matrimony with the every way noble Cordelia.
Exuberance is the great fault of modern writing, it results from the practice of paying by the sheet for literary composition. 'Omit the insipid,' is the grand recipe for improving the romantic literature of the country. An epitome, an abridgement of all our works of fiction would alike contribute to their longevity, and to our accommodation. The writer who aspires to permanent excellence must be his own abbreviator: the shears of criticism are less merciful than those of self-esteem. [complete]
Provided by Julie A. Shaffer, January 2000
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