Sir Julian the Apostate. By Mrs. Clement Parsons. (W. Heinemann.
6s.)—There is a great deal of very clever character- drawing in this novel, and though the central theme must be called " unpleasant," the book contrives to avoid the worst meaning of the word. The great success of the story is Mrs. Farrer-Hammond, whose superficial refinement and real vulgarity are most cleverly drawn. At the end of the book the reader hates this cultured lady almost as much as though he had met her in real life, and this is a real triumph for the author. The old doctor is another character on whom much pains have been bestowed, but though fairly successful, he is of a less original type than Mrs. Farrer-Hammond. This lady's cleverness, her severe good taste in matters of house decoration, and all her other intolerable qualities make up a picture in which the smallest touches are consistent, and help to construct a lifelike whole. The plot of the book is slight, and the hero and heroine are one wooden and the other a mere outline, but the novel is well worth reading, if only for the sake of Mrs. Farrer-Hammond.
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