A cultivated and ambitious young lady seeks her place in the world.
Leonora Blanche Lang, née Alleyne (1851-1933) wrote only this one novel; however, she was largely responsible for the series of twelve collections of fairy tales (the Blue Fairy Book and its variously-colored successors) edited by her husband and fellow novelist, Andrew Lang. This novel, like the fairy book translations, displays her quiet wit and polished style.
“The only draw back to its universal circulation that we can perceive is that” it lacks the pleasure “which seems to consist in seeing how people in fiction live in a manner which is neither the reader’s manner nor that of any human beings who ever breathed the vital air. If this latter delight does chiefly move any man or woman, let him or her by no means read Mrs. Lang. Neither let him read her if he wants bad taste or bad manners or bad French . . . or bad morals. Neither let him read her if he cannot see a joke, for here be many jokes; neither if he wants passions ‘grand, epic, homicidal,’ for here, though the feeling shown is quite natural and human, it is by no means always or often in altitudes. This is, we admit, warning off a very considerable clientele, and it is possible that Mrs. Lang may be the reverse of grateful to us. But ruat cælum. We have not in the least exaggerated the pleasure and pastime which the book is pretty certain to give to people of good breeding, reasonably wide interests, good taste, and a slight inclination to the humorous view of life. It is a pity, perhaps, that some of the things here are not enshrined in a more durable setting; for the book is deliberately, and almost provokingly, ephemeral in design. But this design is so closely connected with what is best in it, with its pleasant fashion of daffing the world aside and bidding it pass, that it is almost illogical to grumble. In fact, a very determined moralist with a sense of humour (supposing there to be such a person) might detect a moral in the slightness with which the book is put together. Into these regions, however, it is not necessary to enter; and all that is necessary is once more to express thanks to Mrs. Lang for this agreeable entertainment, in which she has chosen to make the figures come like shadows and so depart. There is something remarkably lifelike in your shadow; and, save in quite exceptional circumstances, he is one of the most agreeable of companions.” Saturday Review, June 14, 1884
“The plot may be regarded as disappointing by some readers; but, whatever the story loses in that respect, it more than makes up for by caustic cleverness in writing. We get a series of pictures rather than a consecutive narrative. Its real interest lies in the writer’s charming style and power of saying good things. . . . In fact, these Dissolving Views are very vivid and very entertaining while they last.” Academy, June 21, 1884
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