A Royal Amour. By R. Darcy. (Remington and Co.)—This novel
is noticeable as giving further evidence of the interest felt by educated Americans in the history of the mother-country. Mr. Darcy has laboriously qualified himself to write a novel of the Caroline period by a singularly wide course of reading, and if we cannot wholly con- gratulate him on his novel as a work of art, he is fairly entitled to credit for his industry and perseverance. He has chosen the reign of Charles II. as his period, and brings before us the well-known figures of Pepys, Dryden, and Barbara Villiers, with the witty Court of Charles as the background. Unfortunately, Mr. Darcy wants the fusing power ; his characters are everything but lifelike; they want movement, and never impress the reader with a sense of their existence. A. Royal Amour is not likely to please the ordinary novel-reader, yet it is quite intelligible that people who like history made easy will find it agreeable reading, and they will certainly get from Mr. Darcy's book more of the spirit of the time than is conveyed in the usual run of histories. That Mr. Darcy lacks the novelist's temperament is no reason for his not cultivating the historic faculty, which he appears to possess to a considerable extent.
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