20 MAY 1893, Page 24

A Mysterious Family. By a "New Writer." (W. H. Allen

and Co.)—We should hardly have been surprised had the authoress of A Mysterious Family described herself as "The New Writer!, Such a perfectly preposterous and absolutely silly employment of the historical present is fortunately new. A writer who, instead of telling a narrative sensibly, feels bound to project it on a screen like a lecturer and point to it with a long stick, has attempted to usurp the function of the drama, and fails, of course, egregiously. Yet there is occasionally a spark of something better in a "New Writer," who has a little humour, and has plenty of descriptive energy. But she must start on an entirely new basis, having pruned her luxuriant language and grammar. We are not all Carlyles.