Aunt Abigail Dykes. By Lieutenant-Colonel George Randolph, U.S.A. (Chatto and
Windus.)—This interminable story, twice
the length of any other we have ever tried to read, and concerned with the deeds and sufferings of innumerable persons in " Wayne- vine District of Darlington, South Carolina," U.S.A., is a curiosity in its way. "The product of a rough soldier's pen," as its author describes it in his preface, is the last kind of book we should expect• to come up to Macaulay's celebrated description of the ponderous literary production of Dr. Nares ; but Colonel Ran- dolph beats the Doctor, for there is no summarising him. This amazing production, in which time and space are ignored, strange people pop up and down in phantasmagorian fashion, appearing undesired and vanishing unregretted, and pages of reflection and declamation all about nothing occur constantly, is dedicated to the Russian Arch-Duke Alexis, in remembrance of a wild ride across "the plains" which the author shared with him. Should his Imperial Highness ever read the story through, he will be quite ready for a second wild ride anywhere, at the end of it.
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