One Ash. By Algernon Gissing. (F. V. White and Co.
62.)— A well-known dictionary defines a novel as "a fictitious tale professing to be conformed to real life," intended, it may be added, to instruct or amuse. Let instruction be set aside. Probably Mr. Gissing would deny that this is a function of literature. Amusement then is left. How is this provided in One Ash, this "Barndoor Story," as it is described on the title-page Linda Champion marries, but not for love, a brutal farmer, and bears him a son. He dies and leaves, all his property away from wife and child, his reason being suspicion of her fidelity. A servant whom Linda has befriended, by way of avenging her mistress, sets fire to the great barn. The child, who is sleeping in the straw, perishes in the flames. This is the tale professing to be con- formed to real life with which Mr. Gissing amuses la. Such things have happened, it may be said. Yes; but they are not real life any more than the monstrosities of a museum are nature.
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