He has also a vein of humour, without which
such a theme as his could hardly be successfully handled. And although
there is, by measure, much serious talk, yet so skilfully does he bring
in minor characters, with their transient sidelights, that the total
impression is that of a book in which much happens. No realist could
exceed the fidelity with which Signor Fogazzaro outlines a landscape, or
fixes a passing scene; yet being an idealist through and through, he has
produced a masterpiece in which the imagination is sovereign.
Such a book, sprung from "no vain or shallow thought," holding in
solution the hopes of many earnest souls, spreading before us the mighty
spiritual conflict between Medievalism still triumphant and the young
undaunted Powers of Light, showing us with wonderful lifelikeness the
tragedy of man's baffled endeavour to establish the Kingdom of God
on earth, and of woman's unquenchable love, is a great fact in the
world-literature of our time.
Cambridge, Massachusetts,
April 25, 1906.
THE SAINT
CHAPTER I
LAC D'AMOUR
Jeanne was seated by the window with the book which she had been reading
open upon her lap.
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