Joan of Arc: "The Maid." By Janet Tucker. (Marcus Ward.)
—This is one of the excellent series which goes under the name of "The New Plutarch." There is no speciality about Miss Tucker's treatment of her subject, which has been already handled more than once, and that with considerable success, by English writers. She has carefully studied the French authorities, and gives us the re- sults of their research, a research which has of late years been con- ducted with all the zeal which befits a patriotic appreciation of their theme. Her own part has been well done. It is to tell the story as it happened ; and this can be done now with something very like certainty, simply and clearly. She does not attempt fine-writing, which, indeed, would be very much out of place ; and though it is impossible to refrain from some indignant comment on the baseness and cruelty of those who did the heroine to death, yet here also she is temperate and restrained. The work is to be commended for good. taste, industry, and literary skill.
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