21 NOVEMBER 1896, Page 11

The Hermit Princes. By Eleanor Stredder. (Nelson and Sons.) —This

is "A Tale of Adventure in Japan." Perhaps we might say that the tale has too little adventure and too much Japan in it. Miss Stredder is evidently well acquainted with Japan. That is a very desirable qualification for a tale-writer, but knowledge has to be used with discretion, and this, it seems to us, is lacking. The tale is overloaded with detail, all, we do not doubt, correct, but apt to grow tedious. Still it is interesting to make acquain- tance with the various persons and places that figure in the narrative,—Hairy Ainus, Japanese princes banished by the revolution which set the Mikado on the throne, and other notabilities of various kinds.