15 AUGUST 1874, Page 22

Centulle: a Tale of Pau. By Denys Shyne Lawlor, Esq.

(Long- mans and Co.)—This is a pleasant, refined, and ingenious book. It personally conducts the reader through the Pyrenees and the Basque provinces, in company with an imaginary pair of friends, who meet with some interesting people and undergo some curious adventures. The story — for there is a consecutive one all through the travel - scenes, and chapters of pictur- esque description—comes to a melancholy ending, except in the case of one pair of happy lovers, who are all they should be; but as the general award is in strict accordance with morality and poetical justice, we must not complain The idea of interweaving this charming volume of description with a story was a happy one ; the writer has opportunities for legitimate indulgence in enthusiasm, which would have been out of place in the merely grave and more conventional book of travel. In the latter capacity it is valuable, and minute.. One closes it feeling that one knows the country, with all its present facilities and attractions, and all its past historic reminiscences and personages.