to the utmost. When awake
the girl durst not even _attempt_ to do anything of the sort; and, after
all, wonderful as it was, it was _only phonic imitation_, for she did
not understand the meaning of a single word of the foreign language
which she had uttered so correctly."

* * * * *

(_Miss Frances Albert Doughty, in The Critic, 15 June, 1895._)

"The strength of 'Trilby' as a novel lies in the exquisitely dear
realization of the good in the girl's nature, which the fine art of the
author has been able to give to the reader. The divine in the Laird, in
Taffy and in Little Billee responded to the divine in that undeveloped
girl, and to them the angel in her was the real Trilby in spite of all
her past experience. But idealism and realism in this charming story are
not quite happily balanced: the reader receives a blow on the spiritual
side of his being from the manifestation of an agency in the universe
that is endowed with an all-conquering malevolence, something extraneous
from the individual and yet able to arrest in her the growth of the
budding germ of holiness and moral beauty, a power triumphant even at
the moment when her spirit was about to return to the God who gave it.
Without Svengali there would be no novel of Trilby; nevertheless, he is
the sole blot upon it."

* * * * *

(_San Francisco Argonaut_)

"Perhaps the most surprising circumstance connected with 'Trilby' in the
eyes of American readers is the way the book has been received in
England. At best it has been accorded lukewarm praise, and the tone of
its reviews has run the gamut down to downright slating. Some have been
spiteful enough to be exceptionally entertaining. Of these, that of _The
Pall Mall Gazette_ is the most striking, the reviewer of that journal
showing himself to be (as an exchange puts it) a master of vituperative
diction. To this reviewer, 'Trilby's' three Englishmen are 'British
prigs cut in pasteboard,' and their biographer is denied even the poor
ability to express himself in grammatical English."

* * * * *

TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRITIC:--

If there yet remains a word to be said in criticism of this book, it
may, perhaps, be in regard to the musical part of it. Whether
intentionally or not, du Maurier has certainly added an instance, which
tends to prove the theory true, that music in itself is neither
elevating nor refining.