THE SERPENT IN LITERATURE 205 



picture, and the effect would have been more 

 harmonious. This inabiUty of the author to mix 

 and shade his colours shows itself in the passages 

 descriptive of Elsie herself ; he insists a great deal 

 too much on her ophidian, or crotaline, character- 

 istics — her stillness and silence and sinuous motions; 

 her bizarre taste in barred gowns ; her drowsy 

 condition in cold weather, with intensity of life 

 and activity during the solstitial heats — even 

 her dangerous impulse to strike with her teeth 

 when angered. These traits require to be touched 

 upon very lightly indeed ; as it is, the pro- 

 found pity and love, with a mixture of horror 

 which was the effect sought, come too near 

 to repulsion. While on this point it may be 

 mentioned that the author frequently speaks of 

 the slight sibilation in Elsie's speech — a strange 

 blunder for the man of science to fall into, since 

 he does not make Elsie like any snake, or like 

 snakes in general, but like the Crotalus durissus 

 only, the New England rattlesnake, which does not 

 hiss, like some other venomous serpents that are 

 not provided with an instrument of sound in 

 their tails. 



After all is said, the conception of Elsie Venner 

 is one so unique and wonderful, and so greatly 

 moves our admiration and pity with her strange 

 beauty, her inarticulate passion, her unspeakably 

 sad destiny, that in spite of many and most serious 

 faults the book must ever remain a classic in our 

 literature, among romances a gem that has not its 



