"Mr. Weyman now builds his romance on English soil. The time is the
beginning of the Puritan uprising, before the firm establishment of
the Commonwealth, and the personages are Roundheads and Cavaliers.
That is to say, the small boy and his fugitive brother, who are the
most sympathetic characters in the story, represent the Royalist
class, and they are set among crack-brained fanatics, sniveling
hypocrites, and sturdy, well-meaning dissenters. There is a strong and
convincing sketch of Cromwell before he had reached the zenith of his
power, which is quite in Mr. Weyman's best vein.
"The little story, which seems to have been intended as a boys' book,
is well devised and the interest is maintained to an abrupt and
startling denouement. There are no battles, but there is an admirable
description of a march of Cromwell's troops across the wet moors, and
Mr. Weyman's strong feeling for landscape effects, which so greatly
helps the interest of all his romances, pervades this little story."
Christian Advocate
"A new historical tale by Stanley J. Weyman is set in the time of
Cromwell, just after the battles of Marston Moor and Naseby, and
before the surrender by the Scots' army of Charles I. It is called 'A
Little Wizard,' and recites incidents in the careers of two youthful
sons of a Cavalier gentleman who has sacrificed his life to the
Royalist cause, and one of whom--the Little Wizard--figures
pathetically in the story, under the care of a faithless family
servitor who has sinister connections with the Puritan Roundheads. The
story has much of the literary and historic charm which marks all of
Mr. Weyman's works, and it will find many interested readers. It is
illustrated, and has a portrait of the author."
Brooklyn Eagle
. . . . "'A little Wizard,' in a small volume, which will be found
just big enough for an evening's reading. The author has come back to
England in this narrative, which is of the time of Cromwell. It is a
fragment only, but it is like a remnant of some rich piece of tapestry
on which is found embroidered the story of some brave deed of an older
time, and so rich is it, so full of art, so vigorous with life, that
the finder mourns that the whole history is not before him. . . . It
is to be hoped that he will work this vein somewhat further. His
picture of Cromwell in the 'Little Wizard' is very lifelike. One
cannot help wishing that he would attempt the same drawing on a larger
canvas. It is time we had once more a story of romance and adventure
with English ground as its foothold. It would be a blessed relief
from some of the pictures of passion, pure and impure--chiefly the
latter--which of late has given rise to the question as to whether or
not English reserve and modesty has become a forgotten virtue in
literature."
The Outlook
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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