Her Love and his Life. By F. W. Robinson. 3
vols. (Hurst and Blackett.)—In the second rank of living novelists we have no more conscientious and careful workman than Mr. F. W. Robinson, and he never gives us a book that is not worth reading. Her Love and his Life is, in the main, quite worthy of the best of its predecessors, though it can hardly be said to fulfil the promise of its exceptionally strong opening, and is therefore to a certain extent disappointing. The picturesque background of the wild Cornish coast, and the little group of strongly individualised figures who stand in front of it, are painted in with a vigour of realism which impresses the imagination, and though the melodrama of the latter part of the novel is good of its kind, the kind itself is inferior. Still, there is no doubt whatever that Mr. Robinson has written an intensely interesting novel. Mike Garwood, the London gamin who becomes a distinguished painter, is a decidedly attractive hero, and Mr. Robinson's fertility of invention and skill in grouping are as manifest as ever. There is never any dragging in the story ; the movement of narrative is brisk and sustained ; and it need hardly be added that the tone of the book is from first to last elevated and healthy.
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