19 FEBRUARY 1887, Page 24

John Westacott. By James Baker. 3 vole. (Sampson Low and

Co.)—There are some effective pictures of life in this novel ; the first scene, for instance, where we see Lieschen in her home, the solitary inn in the Bavarian highlands, and one that nearly concludes the story, the death of John Westacott in besieged Paris. The tale itself moves along somewhat slowly. If it had been stripped of all that is unnecessary, and reduced to much smaller proportions, it would have had, we venture to say, a greater success. If, as we conjecture, this is the author's first venture in fiction, there is no little promise, the faults of the book lying in the form rather than in the substance.