Diana Carew ; or, For a Woman's Sake. By Mrs.
Forrester. 3 vols. (Hurst and Blackett).—We do not like this novel at all. We would not call it immoral, but its tone is low and worldly. Of course, we shall be told that the end is brought about by a very exalted and unworldly act of self- sacrifice on the part of one of the characters, but this does not affect our opinion of the whole. The main part is the diary of an ingenue, who goes for the first time into society, and falls madly in love with a man who has nothing in his favour but his good looks. The young lady behaves with a strange want of self-restraint, and even of modesty ; the hero is insufferably conceited and selfish. Of course, it is quite true that such people often do get the prizes •kel what seems the happiness of life, and it may be the bush a novelist to show that they do, but such a story should not be without a very plain assertion of the real right and wrong. And then it is an odious thing to find the immorality of men taken, as it were, for granted, and mentioned in the lightest way. To us, it seems a great sin against the dignity and honour of their sex, when women talk and write as if the unchastity of men were a matter of no account. We cannot help asking, now that much is being said 10-aut incorrect quo- tation, where Mrs. Forrester finds in her "favourite Shakespeare,"— " What am I to Hecuba, or what Is Hecuba to use 1"
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