The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 9, May, 1835 — John Shaqi
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 9, May, 1835Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 9, May, 1835
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
the sword from his adversary's hand, and spares him his life. The
story then goes on, without any thing of importance occurring, until
the conflict between the two parties in the Legislature, is decided in
favor of the government, by the passage of a law for the suspension of
the _habeas corpus_ act. The hatred between Talbot and Eustace had
already become of the most rancorous and malignant character, and the
arrest of the latter, who had been once saved by the sister of Talbot,
is now effected by her brother at the head of a party of soldiers.
Thus deprived of their chief support, in the person of Eustace, the
insurgents are soon dispersed, not however without a skirmish, in
which they are put to flight, in a way at once ludicrous and
conclusive. The first fire disperses them, never to recover. Elizabeth
Eustace and Mary Talbot, in the mean time, manage to bring about a
reconciliation between the two hostile brothers, to whom they had been
respectively engaged, and a double marriage consummates the happiness
of this quartette, and concludes the second and last volume of the
"Insurgents." So much for the story, which though simple enough in the
detail, is liable to the serious objection, that must ever lie against
that division of interest, the necessary consequence of introducing a
double set of characters into a plot, that should be single and
simple. The unities of the drama are not more essential to the
perfection of pieces designed for theatrical representation, than is
the preservation of an individual and prominent interest in the hero
of a novel. The narrow compass of a couple of duodecimos, is not more
than sufficient for the painting of one chief character, with the
sketches of the minor _personæ_, necessary to sustain the interest of
a plot. An attempt at double teaming a novel, with two sets of heroes,
invariably results in destroying that prominence of interest, which a
closer adherence to the legitimate form of the fable, naturally and
necessarily insures; and no more striking illustration of our position
could be found, than in the volumes before us. The characters of
Eustace and Talbot, neither contrast with effect, nor harmonize in the
general management of the plot; and the awkward and unnatural
reconciliation, which is finally brought about, to say nothing of the
perplexities into which the cross-loves of the four, plunge the
writer, is the best evidence that this double-plotting has injured the
effect of the story, by rendering it necessary to force a conclusion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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