By Birth a Lady. By George M. Fenn. 3 vols.
(Tinsley.)—Mr. Fenn describes himself as the author of " Mad." "Mad," we remember, but more by its outward appearance, which, with this one word in star- ing letters, was wild enough to be striking, than by its literary charac- teristics or by the interest of its story. The tale before us has not the advantage of a startling title, and has nothing else in virtue of which it may escape forgetfulness. There is a very excellent and insipid heroine ; a hero of the same sort ; a villain who, as might be expected, is drawn in ridiculous caricature, and who, with his "Bai Jove," is a most porten- tous bore. Mr. Fenn seems to begin to feel this himself when he is not far from the end of the third volume, and employs that somewhat hackneyed device of a railway accident to kill him. Finding him, how- ever, indispensable, he brings him to life again, and his " Bai Jove " is almost the last thing that we are permitted to hear. The story itself is of the simplest kind. A, " by birth a gentleman," as we may take leave to describe him, falls tin love with B, "by birth a lady," but temporaril eclipsed by having to act as a governess ; C, the father of A, kind, but proud, opposes the match ; D, who has had something to do with busi- ness, and is by birth a snob, persecutes B in the most preposterous fashion, and then tries to abduct her, and, of course, comes to grief. We had almost forgotten E, D's wicked sister, in love with A. There is a little sister, whom, as she is the only bit of life in the book, we will call by her real name, "Nellie." These are not very promising materials, and Mr. Fenn does not make much out of them.
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