The Manitoba's. By Henry H. Bashford. (John Lane. 6s.)— The
old-fashioned type of novel in which the various characters were formally introduced to the reader has completely passed away, and the personalities of hero and heroine, to say nothing of their names, have now to be guessed at. In the novel before us the story is divided into " books," of which the first is called " The Book of his Boyhood." The guileless reader on being introduced in sentimental circumstances (in the first chapter) to a youth who is on the point of emigrating to Canada, and who is merely alluded to as "he," naturally thinks that this youth is the person whose boyhood is to be described, and industriously endeavours to take an interest in the supposed hero, and to find out his name. But here comes in the ingenuity of the author. The " he" of the first chapter is not at all the " he " of the "Boyhood"; and instead of being the hero, Charlie West, the "he" of chapter one, is merely the ne'er-do-weel of the novel. These methods, though very subtle, are a little apt to make the plain reader paraphrase Calverley, and wondsr " why they were there, who on earth they were, and what this is all about." Once, however, the story gets under way, it is decidedly interesting, and the pictures of life in the great wheat country of Manitoba are well and vividly drawn. Mr. Bashford gives us more than one touch of poetry in his descriptions, and, if the reader feels a little bewildered in the beginning, he closes the book with a very pleasant impression in his mind.
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