13 AUGUST 1887, Page 28

Keraban the Injlesible. By Jules Verne. (Sampson Low and Cm)

—This story in contained in two volumes, which bear respectively the titles of "The Captain of the ' Guidara ' " and " Scarpante the Spy." Keraban, the hero of the whole tale, is a Turkish merchant whose inflexibility prompts him to reuse a tax which is imposed on the crossing of the Bosphorus. Sooner than pay it, he is resolved to reach the opposite side by the circuitous route of going round the east end of the Black Sea. In carrying out this resolution, he meets with a number of adventures. Here M. Verne's genius has some scope for exercise. Mixed up also with the merchant's adventures is the love-story of Amasia and Ahmet, whose marriage the villains of the story are bent on preventing. M. Verne cannot be dull ; but Keraban is not up to hie usual mark.