K. LOWELL.
After the book was published in England, Mr. Buskin wrote to Mrs.
Stowe:--
"Well, I have read the book now, and I think nothing can be nobler
than the noble parts of it (Mary's great speech to Colonel Burr, for
instance), nothing wiser than the wise parts of it (the author's
parenthetical and under-breath remarks), nothing more delightful than
the delightful parts (all that Virginie says and does), nothing more
edged than the edged parts (Candace's sayings and doings, to wit); but
I do not like the plan of the whole, because the simplicity of the
minister seems to diminish the probability of Mary's reverence for
him. I cannot fancy even so good a girl who would not have laughed at
him. Nor can I fancy a man of real intellect reaching such a period of
life without understanding his own feelings better, or penetrating
those of another more quickly.
"Then I am provoked at nothing happening to Mrs. Scudder, whom I think
as entirely unendurable a creature as ever defied poetical justice at
the end of a novel meant to irritate people. And finally, I think you
are too disdainful of what ordinary readers seek in a novel, under the
name of 'interest,'--that gradually developing wonder, expectation,
and curiosity which makes people who have no self-command sit up till
three in the morning to get to the crisis, and people who have self-
command lay the book down with a resolute sigh, and think of it all
the next day through till the time comes for taking it up again.
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