25 JULY 1885, Page 24

I Regular Pickle. By H. W. Nesfield. (G. Redway.)—The career

of a ne'er-do-weel who mixes himself up with a number of objection- able people, and does a number of objectionable things, is not a pleasing subject to most readers, though there are some whom it seems to attract. Surely it is a mark of Philistinism to be enter- tained by a record of blunders and follies. Any one made of finer clay turns from such a story with something like a feeling of personal pain. The most vigorous scene in Mr. Nesfield's story is in the interior of the monastery ; but we are inclined to think, at the same time, that it is the most offensive.