Madelon Lemoine. By Mrs. Leith-Adams. 3 vols. (Hurst and Blackett.)—It
is not easy to say why this novel, written, as it is, with considerable ability, containing a story which should, considering its outlines and incidents, be fairly interesting, and being quite beyond exception in its tone and aim, should not produce a greater impres- aion of success than it does. Its most obvious fault is that it wants simplicity and clearness. Another is this,—the heroine fails to attract. We are told, with no little emphasis and reiteration, that MadeIon is beautiful and interesting. She has a romantic and even tragical history to commend her. We see her winning the heart of a man who has seen the world, and resisted charmers without number. But the reader 'cannot get over the impression that she is a melancholy and some- -what tiresome personage, and refuses to be aroused to any very stir- ring sympathy with her sorrows or her joys. Nor is the Rev. Herbert Unwin a great success. Here the author has committed the mistake of identifying him with a certain wheel of the clergy. Of course, it is difficult to steer between this danger, and that of drawing a quite colourless and meaningless abstraction, but it has to be done. This devoted clergyman ought to be a very striking figure, but we question whether his silly wife, who is meant to be a foil to his courage, ,devotion, and wisdom, will not make more impression on the reader. That she is a life-like and vigorous sketch, is beyond doubt. We should be sorry, however, to leave the impression that Madelon Lemoine is not worth reading. That it certainly is. Passages in it, notably the description of the outbreak of cholera, are quite above the average of novels.
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