15 SEPTEMBER 1888, Page 24

Vaia's Lord. By Jean Middlemass. 3 vols. (Swan Sonnenschein and

Co.)—This is a very unedifying, and, to us, an exceedingly dull book ; in fact, it is one of those novels which are so utterly devoid of anything calculated to attract a reader of good sense and good tasteathat to indulge in serious criticism would be to waste valuable time. The English, the Latin, the conception of character, and the invention of incident are all things of no account.