20 OCTOBER 1888, Page 21

Riven Asunder, by Howard F. Goldsmid (Vizetelly), is a some-

what repulsive study in that unscrupulousness which is produced by devotion to science, and which Mr. Grant Allen and other writers seem inclined to ride to the death. Trinopoulos, the Greek, who separates a singularly deserving and happy couple, leaving a bullet in the head of the husband to see how the madness this diabolic neglect is sure to bring about will show itself in him and in his children, and then driving the wife away by poisoning her mind with lies, that he may make her his victim, is an intolerable, and we believe an impossible, monster. Even a Greek Mephis- topheles can be dominated by only one evil spirit at a time. There is some powerful writing, however, in Riven Asunder.