The Stragglers. By Elizabeth Rebbeck. (Francis Griffiths. 6s.)—Miss Rebbeck describes
her book by the phrase " I Tale of Primal Asperities." "The Lot of Woman in the Backwoods" would have been more intelligible, if less dignified. This is the main subject of the book, and gives occasion for some excellent studies of character. There is Mary Faire, who carries on the battle—for a battle it is both for soul and body—with unbroken spirit; then there is Hetty Culver, who gives in. The sight of a fashionable garment which she might have worn were she in the right place for it makes the backwoods home unendurable. Other characters we have, all vigorously sketched ; and there are men of various sorts and kind, not quite so convincing, it may be, as the women, but always distinctive figures. A slender thread of story, not always easy to follow, runs through the book. This, however, is a secondary matter : we can do without incident when the drawing of human types is done with such subtlety and skill.
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