ABSTRACT
Perhaps, however, we are considering too curiously, and breaking an intellectual butterfly upon a critical wheel. Mr. Wilkie Collins may occasionally have a theory to illustrate, but he always has a story to tell, and the story is of more importance both to him and his readers than the theory. As a mere story it will, we think, be generally admitted, by both critical and non-critical readers, that it is not one of its author’s conspicuous successes. The narrative style is as good, or nearly as good as ever, but the tale is somewhat burdened with needless complexities. For example, Mr. Gracedieu’s extraordinary scheme of bringing up the two girls who are supposed to be sisters in ignorance of their respective ages was not merely impracticable in itself-as the elder would naturally remember the infancy of the younger-but was calculated to defeat the very end it was intended to serve by suggesting to some curious person that something was being concealed. Mr. Gracedieu’s special aim was, of course, to prevent the fact that Eunice was the daughter of a murderess from being disclosed to the world by the malignant Miss Chance; but the danger seems far too shadowy to justify such an exceedinglycumbrous and inconvenient method of averting it, and the consequence is that the plot seems much less workmanlike and inevitable than Mr. Wilkie Collins’s plots are wont to be. Then, too, there is an almost entire absence of the author’s peculiar humour, which is always one of the most refreshing elements in his books; and when we add that among all the characters there is not one which appeals very strongly to the reader’s interest, it will be seen that we regard The Legacy of Cain as a comparative failure. We say comparative, because to a writer with such a wonderful gift of narration as that possessed by Mr. Wilkie Collins, absolute failure is all but impossible.
