Fiction: Biographical Fiction: “Job Hildred: Artist and Carpenter” By Dr. Richards, edited by Ellen F. Pinsent: Edward Arnold, London, and New York. Three shillings and sixpence: “This is the fictional biography of a country boy who, brought up to his father’s trade as a carpenter, is led to forsake it for painting, which, owing to his lack of abilities, eventually proves his own ruin. Mrs. Pinsent’s phrasing is simple, and free from any attempts at literary style, while the story we found hardly clever enough to be of sustained interest. There are only three characters with whom the reader is brought into intimate contact; the others are but mere shadows in the background. It is, therefore, hardly to be wondered that the narrative seems to drag — to even bore one in the strict narrowness of its confinement. This Job Mildred is a creative of impulse, whose life is one long battle between his nature and his art, and who finally buries himself in the latter, to the exclusion of parents, wife, home – everything. This, in itself, is a striking, if not elevating, character study and in counter-relief one has the picture of a brave, staunch woman whose great love serves to prove rather than depreciate her worth. Mrs. Pinsent knows her country well, and the few snatches of Lindsey dialect are quite the brightest things in a book that is almost gloomy. One cannot but feel convinced that the authoress could do much better work.”
Transcribed in whole or part from scanned originals: Presented with or without modified text and punctuation. For absolute accuracy refer to the original newspapers. Source: The British Newspaper Archive.
Referenced
GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949