Helen of Troy, N.Y. By Wilfred S. Jackson. (John Lane.
6s.) —One of the characters most appositely remarks in the fourth chapter of this novel, "All Bedlam's loose to-night," and this sentence gives the keynote to Mr. Jackson's fantastic but enter- taining story. Although the beginning is rather clumsily managed (the author seeming several times to lose the thread of his plot while introducing his characters), the idea of the Stranger Second and the Duel in the Green Park is an excellent opening to a serious burlesque. The device by which the Second, who is the only innocent person, becomes the only person com- promised, is also extremely ingenious ; in fact, with a little more careful and patient work in fitting together the pieces of his puzzle the author might have achieved a real success in the type of extravaganza which he set himself to write. Unfortu- nately, however, he does not quite succeed, for, in the first place, he does not take himself seriously enough, and, in the second, the details of the imbroglio are not well enough worked out to be absolutely credible. A preposterous story is only amusing if it seems credible granting its original impossible situation. To seem credible it must be possessed of unimpeachable details, and be told with what children call a perfectly "straight face." Stevenson's " Wrong Box " is the type of this kind of novel, and the student has only to read the book to see with what inimitable patience the details are worked out, and with what gravity the story is presented to the consideration of the reader.
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