Christopher Kenrick : his Life and Adventures. By Joseph Hatton„
2 vols. (Bradbury and Evans.)—Mr. Kenrick writes the story of his life, which is mainly that of a writer for the press, and roads it as he writes, to an audience of his own family, with whose comments, ste., we are favoured. The plan has boon followed before by Lord Lytton, as indeed one of the young people ingenuously remarks, and more recently by Mr. Helps. But it is only very well-established favourites of the pub- lic that can take such a liberty with their readers. And Mr. Kenrick's young people certainly do not talk as well as the Caxton family, or the inimitable Sir John Ellesmere. The tale itself has plenty of interest. Had it been shortened by these superfluous chapters, and by some still more unjustifiable "extracts from my diary," which are nothing more than bits out of the Annual Register, the book might have been re- duced to one volume, and we might have accorded to it a less conditional praise. As it is, we can recommend it to our readers, knowing that they keep in their own hands the supreme power of "skipping."
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