22 DECEMBER 1883, Page 22

The Golden Magnet, by G. Manville Fenn (Blackie and Son),

is a gorgeous-looking book, with many pictures. The one in which a girl is sitting fascinated by a huge snake may be of doubtful scientific value, but is intended to illustrate the wonderful escape of the young lady, who, it seems, was partly saved by the preference of the snake for a jaguar, which was also close at hand. The author has, we believe, written several books of the kind before, and no doubt finds it increasingly difficult to minister to the puerile craving for the dreadful, and yet to keep things sufficiently probable. And, after all, if heroes and heroines are in Smith America, there is no knowing what may happen to them. Some of the most exciting incidents turn on the finding of treasures long hidden, belonging to ancient temples. But did they belong to the finder P