Socially they are the most charming people in the world. Also in this
respect Albrecht is typical, and the songs in which he gives vent to his
lyrical moods have such a rapturous melody that they keep humming in the
brain long after the reader has closed the book. It almost follows as a
psychological necessity that a man so richly endowed with the gift of
speech is feeble and halting in action. Like Tourgueneff's "Rudin," who
suffered from the same malady, he gains by the brilliancy and novelty of
his speech the love of a noble young girl, who, taking his phrases at
their face value, believes his heart to be as heroic as his tongue.
Like him, too, he fails in the critical moment; nay, restrained by petty
scruples, he even stays away from the rendezvous, and by his cowardice
loses what by his eloquence he had won.
A second novel, "Common People," which deals with low life in its most
varied phases, shows the same admirable truthfulness and exactness in
the character drawing, the same refreshing humor and universal sympathy
and comprehension.
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