ABSTRACT
In Antonina and Basil Mr. Collins showed himself possessed of gifts of genius; but in those works his strength was like the strength of fever, and his knowledge of human nature resembled a demonstration in morbid anatomy. Over both those works there hung a close, stifling, unwholesome odour: if fascinating, they were not wholesome; if powerful, they were not pleasant. In his present work, Hide and Seek, he has ceased walking the moral hospital to which he has hitherto confined his excursions. Here we have health and strength together. The plot of the story is very simple, but it is skilfully and artfully worked out; there is not a single scene, or character, or incident, howevertrivial, that does not in some way tend to carry on the story and to bring on the dénoûment; there is nothing useless or extraneous introduced, and yet the foliage of the story grows in the most careless and accidental luxuriance. The pages abound in proofs that Mr. Collins has a genuine healthy sense of fun, and a humour of his own, bright, delicate and yet playful. The root from which the story grows is a deep and most pitiful tragedy,—‘to make men tremble who never weep;’—but it is almost free from exaggeration and false sentiment. The pity that is roused for Madonna’s mother is skilfully kept from becoming too painful by the introduction of human incidents, as true to nature as they are well managed,—and when, at the end of the story, that woman’s betrayer is revealed, the reader’s pity and forgiveness are secured for him also. A knowledge of human nature is displayed in the course of this sad story which will appeal to all who read in arrest of harsh judgment when they have closed the book and gone back to their own business. Valentine Blyth, the artist, with his bad pictures, which are charming, and his sunny disposition, his child-like integrity and common sense, has all the effect of genius; poor dear tormented Zach, who begins by being a naughty boy at church over a sermon two hours long, —goes through the book one of the most fascinating young scamps who was ever mismanaged and ‘misunderstood’ by his family;—Mrs. Peckover, Mrs. Blyth, in her sweet cheerful patience,—Madonna, the adopted daughter, are all charming in their way. Mathew Grice, the backwoodsman, the brother of Madonna’s mother,—the patient vindictive pursuer of her betrayer, is a most powerful character, and looks like a study from real life. We will not spoil the reader’s interest in the book by developing the story,—and it is useless to extract passages from a work which every one should read.
