21 MAY 1870, Page 19

Pluebe's Mother. By Louisa Anne Meredith. 2 vols. (Tinsley.)—Mrs. Meredith

wrote a book of merit and interest, which many of our readers will probably remember, "My Bush Friends in Tasmania." We cannot say that wo have been favourably impressed with what we have since seen from her pen, or with the work before us. It is a strange mixture of sensationalism and gossip, the latter the bettor done of the two, but not really good, not typical and representative gossip, not like the wonderful talk, expressing the very essence of village thought, which George Eliot evolves out of her consciousness. Still the tale is tolerably read- able, with descriptions of life not artistically, but photographically true., and this is something which we do not always get ; and the moral is irreproachably good.