18 JULY 1891, Page 11

Selections from the Works of Charles Reade. With an Introduc-

tion by Mrs. Alexander Ireland. (Chatto and Windus.)—Charles Reade is not an author who lends himself most easily to extract, but this is simply because he is a novelist. Fine passages abound in his works, but fortunately they suffer more from detachment than do extracts from an essayist or orator. The extracts from " The Cloister and the Hearth," for instance, lose much by their fragmentariness. Excellent as is their quality, they do not justify Mrs. Ireland's contention, which yet we believe to be true, that it is the author's finest work. Still, we are glad to have this volume.