14 SEPTEMBER 1889, Page 23

Blood - Money, and other Stories. By Charles Gibbon. 2 vols. (Chatto

and Windus.)—It is not necessary to say much of this collection of short stories. As Mr. Andrew Lang and others have pointed out, few English writers have cared to regard the short tale, or conte, as a real work of art, and among the few Mr. Charles Gibbon is not to be reckoned. Still, if " Blood-Money" and its com- panion stories do not provide for their readers any very intense intellectual or imaginative pleasure, they fulfil very creditably the lower but not unworthy purpose of providing agreeable and wholesome entertainment for an idle hour. There are seven tales in the two volumes, and the longest, "At Any Cost," is by no means the best. Several of the others are ingeniously constructed and by no means badly told.