MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, 383 



author in his five years' captivity, it is unnecessary to say the work 

 will still possess attractions of no ordinary kind. It is a well written 

 narrative, and is illustrated by several excellent lithographic en- 

 graving's. 



The Governess ; or Politics in Private Life. By the Daughter of 

 the author of" The Balance of Comfort." Smith, Elder, & Co. 



We think we can perceive undoubted evidences in the style, that 

 this is a maiden effort on the part of the fair authoress. If so, it is a 

 very creditable one, and holds out the promise of future distinction in 

 the world of letters. The chief faults of the work are a certain for- 

 mality or stiffness both in the style and in the manner of introducing 

 her characters and incidents. The object, which is to vindicate the 

 rights of governesses, and to secure for them a higher station than 

 they are generally allowed to fill in societ}% is a most laudable one. 

 The volume, indeed, proves throughout the amiableness of the 

 writer's mind. The work is unequal; parts of it are dull ; but there 

 are |many passages'of considerable power and of effective writing. 

 As the body of the work does not afford convenient matter for ex- 

 tract, we cannot do better than give the author's introductory obser- 

 vations, which will enable our readers to form some idea of the cha- 

 racter of the book : — 



" It has always been a favourite opinion of mine, and one which exten- 

 sive intercourse with society has not induced me to forego, that the world 

 was made up of " men, women, and governesses." This idea did not origi- 

 nate in my own early home, for I was educated by my father ; but in the 

 morning calls, or visits of a longer period, which I was in the habit of mak- 

 ing with my mother at the houses of our thinly scattered aristocracy. Even 

 at this distance of time, I have perfect recollection of the unhappy and ill- 

 used individuals who rarely failed to present themselves on these occasions. I 

 was too young to be a participator of the conversation of the drawing-room, and 

 was consequently often sent to visit my contemporaries of the school-room ; 

 or when this was not the case, we were summoned to the one o'clock dinner, 

 which was to constitute the luncheon of all the morning visitors who might 

 chance to appear at that hour. Yes, even now, I see before me the pretty 

 interesting-looking girl, who, already seated at the table with five or more chil- 

 dren, was the only individual of the party to whom none was introduced, to 

 whom no sort of attention was paid beyond that of desiring her to " help 

 Emma to the breast of the fowl," or to see that '' Julia ate more like a lady," 

 and wlio, in the midst of the ravages committed on flesh and fowl, must have 

 risen from her comfortless dinner hungry. This was the "Governess." If 

 we were staying in the house, and a quadrille was proposed, it was the " go- 

 verness" who was " sent for " to preside unrelieved at the piano, and who 

 was dismissed at the conclusion of our amusement with the simple acknow- 

 ledgment of ■' that will do ; thank you, Miss Duncombe." To that same Miss 

 Duncombe, unnoticed and obscure, I, as a girl of sixteen, not introduced, was 

 indebted for some of the pleasantest hours I passed at Charlfont, the seat of a 

 Mr. Maynard, where I frequently paid a vi.sit of some days with my mother; 

 to the pretty and amiable governess, I invariably retreated, when it was de- 

 cided that th'Tc was no room for me in the carriage, or wjien the whisperings 

 of certain matrons gavemc a quiet hint to withdraw. By the bye, I think the 

 life of a girl too old for lessons, and too young for secrets, not much more en- 



