The Romance of Dollard

Extrait :

"The heroine, Claire Laval, is a woman of the French
noblesse, who has come to Quebec with a hidden
passion for Dollard. Neither the hero nor the reader is
admitted to the secret of this act until, in the crisis of
the great sacrifice of the Saut, the confession can be
made without loss of maidenly dignity. The author has
chosen this point with unerring rightness, but no
5emphasis is laid on it, for it is only one of the many
significant features of this lovely romance. The reader
feels from the outset the sweet passion of the heroine's
nature, but the revelation of her strength of will and
intensity of purpose is gradually made. At the risk of
raising an incredulous smile, we assert that there is
something Shakespearean in this figure of Claire Laval,
and when we have said this we have told the reader that
the portraiture is the work of a poet rather than of a
novelist. This exquisite creation, with the old-world art
and the new-world nature, has a delightful counterpoise
in the Indian maiden Massawippa, in whom the pride of
a savage is so refined by the love of a daughter that we
see the two figures stepping side by side without for a
moment confusing them, yet perceiving their profound
community. Each, too, complements the other, to the
heightening of the general effect. The scene in the
chapel, where the two women lie side by side at the foot
of the altar, has a stillness of power which creates for
the reader an entire circumstance. We mean that he is
drawn to look at this dark and at this fair woman so
steadily that the very objects about them gradually
become more visible to him in the quiet night. ".......................to be continued !

Dettagli