13 DECEMBER 1890, Page 26

A Modern Milkmaid. By the Author of " Commonplace Sinners."

2 vols. (Digby and Long.)—This is a book to be avoided by everyone who has any respect for good English or for good taste, either of matter or manner. Here are a few samples, which will give the reader a very fair impression of the style of the whole :—" This is no house for you and I." "The roses on her breast heaved as the flowing of blood heaves from an open wound." " The mists of passion skulking from the direct vision of her soul to mingle with the dull echoes of the baser life around her." "Reason and will were dead within her. She was no worthier than a flower instinctively obeying the only life within it. If a flower, she was his to pluck and leave at pleasure, he knew, for no nerve or muscle in the clinging body said him ' nay,' no feature in the fainting face but wooed him to his will." This last extract is certainly disgusting enough, but there are worse things in the book.