all Christendom; and after
her death Little Billee pines away, too, and no one is left but the big
ex-officer Taffy--with the exception of Trilby, the most attractive
character in the book. For Little Billee (whose sister he marries, after
the death of Trilby, whom he, too, loved) is, truth to tell, somewhat of
a prig, even after the sight of Trilby at the concert in Paris has
roused him from the unemotional state to which her flight consigned him,
years before; and Svengali is a beast, and Gecko is insignificant.

The text of the book is the counterpart of its illustrations, for Mr. du
Maurier writes as he draws--with infinite precision and detail. Nothing
is omitted that could possibly heighten an effect. Instead of flashing a
scene or a sensation upon you, he describes it and redescribes it,
heaping up the adjectives in masses. His art is a different art from
Kipling's, for instance, which never wastes a syllable. But the point to
be decided is not one of methods but of results; and as a whole "Trilby"
is delightful. It is a slow and laborious process by which the author
creates an impression and surrounds his characters with the atmosphere
he wishes us to see them in; but he does finally create the impression
and the atmosphere, and in so doing justifies his means. He has steeped
his mind in Thackeray, and so has had a noble master. Like "Peter
Ibbetson," his new story is unique. It is a book that could have been
written only by an artist--and illustrated only by the author; it is a
book, moreover, in which the man and the style are one.

In its present form the story contains certain passages not printed in
the magazine--notably, a brief disquisition on sitting for the nude. On
the other hand, certain passages have been altered in deference to the
wishes of Mr. Whistler, who saw in Joe Sibley, as described and pictured
by Mr. du Maurier, an unpleasant resemblance to himself. Not only has
the text been altered, but our friend Sibley is now called Antony, and
his hitherto unbearded face is adorned with a non-Whistlerian beard.
(See "Trilby," opposite page 132.) One picture has been omitted
altogether. It needed not the accidental advertising of Mr. Whistler's
threatened libel suit to draw attention to the book. It is its own best
advertisement, and has fairly earned the success implied in advance
orders so numerous as to cause the postponement until to-day (8 Sept.
1894) of the original date of publication.