Excerpt from The Gay-Dombeys: A Novel Y the standards of the austerer school of critics this is certainly not a perfect novel. The rules that school insists upon, the rule of restraint, the rule of humourless statement, the complete suppression indeed of the author's personality, are utterly disregarded. But there are other, if less in uential, Opinions abroad in such matters. There have always been readers who were disposed to argue that in books, at any rate, negative virtues are defects, and the apologists for ...
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Excerpt from The Gay-Dombeys: A Novel Y the standards of the austerer school of critics this is certainly not a perfect novel. The rules that school insists upon, the rule of restraint, the rule of humourless statement, the complete suppression indeed of the author's personality, are utterly disregarded. But there are other, if less in uential, Opinions abroad in such matters. There have always been readers who were disposed to argue that in books, at any rate, negative virtues are defects, and the apologists for imperfection and lax ways, basing themselves on the long English tradition, can assert with some Show Of reason that in the novels most freely cited as exemplars, the solidity, gravity, and elaboration of the treatment varies inversely with the quality of the matter. But your common reader reads for matter. Here, in the book before us, the levity is all in the treatment. Sir Harry Johnston has to tell of very curious and intricate realities; he knows as thoroughly as any living man can know, the intimacies of that queer system in which court, foreign Office, colonial Office, family in uence, financial powers, Shipping firms, casual-adventurers, inspired journalists, and the encounters of the London dinner tables and English week-end parties, played their parts in the expansion and administration of the empire Of Queen Victoria. It is a world with whose exterior assumptions our distinguished contemporary, Mrs. Humphry Ward, writing from the woman's point of view and with a certain romancing touch, has familiarized two continents; but Sir Harry has lived the life, and so far from his laxities impairing his final effect, the easy carelessness of his presentation adds enormously to our final conviction of the truths in his picture. He tumbles out his story with. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at ... This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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