21 FEBRUARY 1880, Page 25

George Rayner. By Leon Brook. 2 vols. (Chapman and Hall.)—

'This is a story of jealousy, which might, it seems to us, have been 'made much better than it is. George Rayner's character affords an .opportunity of making what might be an effective situation, and ." Leon Brook" (a pseudonym, we suppose) has some little power of writing (though he or she does speak of a room being luouriantly furnished). But, after a while, we get into a region of intrigues, misunderstandings, and difficulties, which does not resemble, as far as we can judge, any known part of human life. Any human being out of a novel, witnessing such a scene as that which drives George Rayner to despair, would ask for an explanation, and not rush away -without his breakfast.