22 APRIL 1876, Page 21

Harold Freeheart. 3 vols. (Tinsley Brothers.)--The author is careful to

inform us on his title-page that his work is " a romance." We do not see that it differs much from the ordinary novel. Most of the characters are ordinary enough, and not more like or unlike human beings than those which we commonly meet with in works of fiction. The best part of the book is the third volume, when the attempts of Sodeno to carry off "Little Fairy," with their vicissitudes of success and failure, are related-with much spirit. We may suggest, however, that the incident of the death of Nannette is a trifle too "romantic." In this country we have coroners' inquests, and though she was doubtless a very wicked woman, and fully deserved her fate, it is doubtful if the sagacious dog that killed her would have been allowed to go un- molested. At Rivenham this very startling event seems to have been accepted with the utmost calmness. Probably its inhabitants, as tenants. and dependents of Lord Hubert (alias the Earl of St. Altiers), had those feelings of feudality which are so much prized in certain quarters, and were quite satisfied when a woman who molested that noble family was bitten through the throat by a big dog.