19 FEBRUARY 1831, Page 17

The Incognito is a novel written in English by a

Spaniard, Don TELESFORO TRUEBA Y Cosio, the author of the Romance of The Incognito is a novel written in English by a Spaniard, Don TELESFORO TRUEBA Y Cosio, the author of the Romance of His- tory in Spain. The most remarkable thing about it, or in the author's former work, is the goodness of the English : in this re- spect, though unluckily in no other, we think the Incognito a curiosity. It is a modern "fashionable novel" in Madrid ; and is intended to give a view of manners in that capital as they existed ten or twelve years ago. The task is beyond or beside the author's abilities. His story is made out of the commonplace-book of the circulating library ; his characters are without force and individuality: the incidents are certainly Spanish, if they belong to. any nation,—which, however, we should altogether doubt. A gentleman of rank and fortune, in Madrid, is spirited away by his valet, and with the connivance of his wife. The Inquisition is blamed by the world, whereas he is despatched by a hired bravo. After the revolution of a number of years, he of course casts up again—the assassin had done his work clumsily. The disturb- ance created by the apparition of the "Incognito" in Madrid, the scene of his former happiness and his wife's domestic wickedness, may be easily conceived—especially by those who have read many hundred similar tales. The catastrophe is violent, and modelled after the old school. The detected villain attempts to stab the Incognito: his repentant wife throws herself between the parties, so as to intercept and receive the blow. [She dies.] The dis- appointed scoundrel then very properly wreaks his vengeance on himself—he blows his brains out. [Falls by the side of his partner in guilt. Dies.]