* * * * *
_Out of the Depths._ The Story of a Woman's Life. London: Macmillan &
Co. 8vo. pp. 381.
The author of this book is like an awkward angler, who fails to take a
trout himself, and spoils the water for the more skilful man who may
follow him. Its object is the illustration of that subject which has
been called "the greatest of our social evils," and which, in its
present aspect, is certainly one of the saddest that the statesman or
the moralist is called upon to contemplate, and yet one the duration of
which seems to be inevitably coexistent with every form of civilized
society yet known to the world. The author has sought his end by means
of a fictitious autobiography. This was of course. No unusual faculty
in the selection of methods was necessary to the choice; for only in
the autobiographical form could the inner life of a courtesan be so
revealed as to present a truthful and living picture of her soul's
experience. A fine novel of this kind would be a great book, and one
productive of much good; not, indeed, directly to the wretched class
that would furnish studies for it, but to society at large, and so
indirectly to the class in question, by providing a subject of this
kind which could be studied and talked about.
Pages:
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367