Wildfire. By Walter Thornbury. Three vols. (Hurst and Blackett.)- It
would be absurd to call this a good novel, but it is infinitely better than half the trash which is published. Mr. Thornbury's story has plenty of incident---rather too much, perhaps, for it gives the reader a sense of being always in hot water,-but at all events it moves on. And he has read up a good deal about the French Revolution, and writes easily, if not correctly. His mistake is in straining too much at cleverness. When all the chapters have unintelligible headings like those of Carlyle's history, and historical characters, such as Marie Antoinette and Robes- pierre, are introduced, merely for the sake of introducing them, we involuntarily ask whether we have indeed a great historical novel before us-and considered from that point of view " Wildfire" is a melancholy failure.
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