Isabel Broderick. By Alice Jones. (John Lane. 6s.)—This novel is
above the average in plot and character-drawing, bat it is a little spoilt to a fastidious reader by an occasional extraordinary vulgarity in the use of words. The expression "a bit" used for "a little" gives a common air to a serious sentence, and it is an expression very dear to the heart of the author. This fault apart, the book may fairly be recommended to the reader, one of its good points being that much more material has been used in its construction than is the ease with most of the stories of the day. The characters are firmly drawn,
and though the reader will not find any one of them superlatively attractive, they are quite sufficiently agreeable to retain his benevolent interest. It is a comfort, too, to read an agreeable story in which nobody but a minor character behaves with doubt- ful propriety, and to which the conscientious reviewer is not obliged to affix the label "Unpleasant."
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