Her Success. By Annie Thomas. 3 vole. (F. V. White
and Co.) —The " she " whose " success " is related in this story is an un- principled young woman who achieves the glory of marrying a worthless old nobleman, and meets a proper punishment in her successful ambition. This in itself is a sufficiently commonplace incident, but Miss Thomas leads up to it with some skill. Olive is heartless, but there is an excuse for her heartlessness in the ill behaviour of the lover to whom she had once given her affections, and in the silly diplomacies of the old woman with whom she lives. In short, there is an effort in the novelist to draw a real human being, one whose character has a moral history ; and this is an effort so rare as to be worthy of no little praise. It is a pity that a study on which muoh pains and some genuine skill have been expended should be so repulsive. No reader can feel a moment's sympathy for Olive. In that ie Miss Thomas's chief failure.
Previous page
