The Actor's Wife. By Edmund Leathes. 3 vols. (S. Tinsley.)—
Whatever is lacking to this novel, there is certainly no lack of inci- Aleut. Gertrude Totter has the misfortune to make the acquaintance of two stepbrothers, between whom, for villainy and general repulsive. ness, it would be difficult to make a choice. Her father compels her to marry one of them, a drunken and murderous sea-captain, and she is persecuted incessantly by the other. There is a vast amount of irrelevant matter introduced into the story, extracts, for instance, from a diary kept at sea, from which we are to conclude, what we understand quite sufficiently already, that the captain was an irre- claimable brute. And what is relevant is often anything but agree- able, the reader being kept in suspense whether the amiable heroine has or has not committed bigamy. The style also admits of con- siderable improvement. Such an equivalent for tea as "that feminine afternoon stomach-soother" is not in the best taste. Still, the book is above the lowest level of novels, and gives the idea that the author may some day write a book really worth reading.
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