NOVELS AND Sun.—Lost in the Crowd, by the Author of
"Recommended to Mercy" (White and Co.), is the story of an octoroon, who in the old days of slavery loved "not wisely, but too well," an impulsive young Englishman. We are introduced during the slow progress of three volumes to typical people of all nation- alities, and in spite of the occasional tedium of long drawn-oat details, become interested. Happily, all comes right for the pretty octoroon in the end.—Upton-on-Thames, by Thomas A. Pinkerton, 2 vols. (Chapman and Hall), is an amusing story of county-town life, circling round a vulgar and ambitions solicitor and his equally vulgar and still more ambitious wife. The heroine is tolerably attractive. There is an account of a coroner's inquest, which, though somewhat tedious, hits off pretty effectively the weak points of that institution.—Killed at Sedan, by Samuel Richardson (Wash- bourne), is not a particularly entertaining story relating to the Franco-Prussian war. There is far too mach "fine-writing " in it. —Mary St. John. By Rosa Nouchette Carey. 3 vols. (Bentley.) "The Church" and its work plays a prominent part in this novel. Mary St. John is one of those young women who have a " mission," and fearlessly carry it out, though happily, in the end, she is content to find her work in the common-place sphere to which most of her sex devote themselves. There is much affliction and death towards the end, and some hard things are said of Dissenters ; but the story is likely to prove acceptable in certain circles.
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