The Little Leo: a Story of the South Sea. By
Sydney Mostyn. 3 vols. (Samuel Tinsley.)—This is a good story, which does not need to be recommended to the reader by the not very pleasing "short introduction" which the author has seen fit to prefix to it. The Merchant Service has found chroniclers as well as her Majesty's Navy, nor do we see anything in which Mr. Mostyn's novel differs from many of its predecessors, except, perhaps, that it is above the average of them in merit. His descriptions of life in the forecastle are vigorous and graphic, but they are not essentially different from what we have seen before. It is early, too, in the second volume when the hero bids farewell to this region of the ship, and takes up a more congenial abode in the cabin and on the quarter-deck. But we have nothing but praise to give to the story itself. It is well conceived and powerfully told. Every detail is carefully contrived to give effect to the whole. The interest is sustained without marvels or surprises, and though it contains all the elements of romance, we feel that it never takes us beyond the limit of reality. This is one of the novels which cannot be criticised in detail without a damaging interference with the interest of its plot, and we must therefore ask our readers so far to take our recommendation on trust.
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