Till the Great Assize. By Vere Clavering. 3 vols. (Hurst
and Blackett.)—The author who calls himself or herself " Vere Clavering" shows no signs of growth, for this new book, with its pretentious and inappropriate title, is not an improvement upon its predecessors. Mere narrative construction is always important ; but in a story which has either great literary charm or strong character-interest, it is not all-important, as it is in a novel which, like Till the Great Assize, depends for its attractiveness upon the excitement and satisfaction of curiosity concerning the evolution of a tangled plot. Unfortunately, it is in construction that Vere Clavering's novel is most notably weak, for the death of the villain, which is perhaps the strongest incident in the book, comes long before we reach the end of the story, and his disappearance neces- sitates a complete change in the centre- of interest, the natural result being a total, loss of artistic unity. The style of the book is poor, and the characters are conventional ; so from no point of view can it be regarded as a successful performance.
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