MS Princeton University, Parrish Collection
My dear Cousin Arthur
Charlotte F Yonge tells me that you are anxious to know what I think of your daughter’s book.1 Of course I looked it up at once in the Swedish history which, equally of course, was too small to give all the details, though there was quite enough to see that she had full authority for all she said.
The first scene is wonderful, it reminds me nothing so much as that where the black Winkleworth puts on the clock.2
And I think the King is drawn in a masterly manner, with his real bravery, mixed with the consciousness of the prophecy, which renders him willing to have Adalf out of the way
But I am afraid I cannot be much interested in Adalf himself I do not quite grasp him as a whole, and I wish Talla had really died.
The book seems to me to suffer from the want of a very admirable character – Fersen is the only one about whom one can care very much. The King was (really in history) too tyrannical for one to be very sorry for him and in spite of his courage and generosity, he does not endear himself
I think I have a better opinion of Mme de Stael but her part in the story is very well managed and the start of Varennes is wonderfully good.
It is altogether a book of great ability and I am glad to have read it
Yours very sincerely
C M Yonge
The part about Marie Antoinette is beautiful