12 DECEMBER 1908, Page 26

READABLE Novsts.—Mad Barbara. By Warwick Deeping. (Cassell and Co. 6s.)—This

is a spirited story of the days of Charles II. and the "Popish Plot." The Gores, father and son, and the heroine are effective studies.—The Bed City. By S. Weir Mitchell. (Macmillan and Co. 6s.)—Here the scene is, to an English reader at least, unfamiliar: the United States in the days of the French Revolution. The hero is a French emigre of a somewhat unusual type. It is, like all the many works of its veteran author, a good and thoroughly wholesome story.—Racket and Best. By Harold Begbie. (Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.) — Theodore Sparks marries a pretty girl, who afterwards makes a great success on the comic stage. The stage is "racket "; home is "rest." How the two contend is well told here. Theodore's mother is a particularly good study.