But the 'Romance of Monte Beni' has the additional charm for me,
that it is the first book of yours that I have read since I had the
privilege of making your personal acquaintance. My memory goes back at
once to those walks (alas, not too frequent) we used to take along the
Tiber, or in the Campagna; ... and it is delightful to get hold of the
book now, and know that it is impossible for you any longer, after
waving your wand as you occasionally did then, indicating where the
treasure was hidden, to sink it again beyond plummet's sound.
"I admire the book exceedingly.... It is one which, for the first
reading, at least, I didn't like to hear aloud.... If I were composing
an article for a review, of course, I should feel obliged to show cause
for my admiration; but I am only obeying an impulse. Permit me to say,
however, that your style seems, if possible, more perfect than ever.
Where, O where is the godmother who gave you to talk pearls and
diamonds?... Believe me, I don't say to you half what I say behind your
back; and I have said a dozen times that nobody can write English but
you. With regard to the story, which has been somewhat criticised, I can
only say that to me it is quite satisfactory. I like those shadowy,
weird, fantastic, Hawthornesque shapes flitting through the golden
gloom, which is the atmosphere of the book. I like the misty way in
which the story is indicated rather than revealed; the outlines are
quite definite enough from the beginning to the end to those who have
imagination enough to follow you in your airy flights; and to those who
complain, I suppose that nothing less than an illustrated edition, with
a large gallows on the last page, with Donatello in the most pensile of
attitudes,--his ears revealed through a white nightcap,--would be
satisfactory.
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