OCR Text |
Show H'!f I STEVENSON'S PORTRAITS OF WOMEN. t v In an appreciative article on Robert Louis B, Stevenson, in the September Fortnightly Review, Hu : H. B. Marriott Watson says: U f '! BfHi? A Point which has been often brought against BtvjKt Stevenson is his alleged inability to draw a K)? woman. I believe that this criticism originated B f ! l with himself, for, at any rate, ho was wont to BLt f I say that he was afraid of essaying the sex as BBp t "they invariably turned to barmaids on his Bf I I hands." But here I maintain he did himself in- B t f ' justice, if, indeed, his remarks were anything B; & k more than tin extravagant expression of dlscon- B x 1 ' tent with his own handiwork. He did not (it is B j I true) adventure many portraits of women, but Bp 'Pli those either elaborated or suggested by him are, Bp &Jj full of fidelity. Mrs. Henry, in the "Master of BvJ&lH Ballantrae," is, to my mind, a conspicuously suc- Blllf i cessful representation of an honest, narrow wo- HBff 4v) man of a certain class. Seraphina is delightfully B' 1 14 and annoyingly feminine; Providence von Rosen Hf j W alone should redeem her author from his own B; 1 charge; while Catriona and Miss Grant are in B s vp 1 their several ways attractive young women. RL 1 They have only one demerit that I know which HW I is, that they have inspired a veritable legion of BBSB i |