25 NOVEMBER 1876, Page 25

Carstairs. By Massingberd Home. 3 vols. (Chapman and Hall.)— To

tell how two pairs of lovers were at cross-purposes, and how things came right in the end, is an object which many writers of novels have set before them, and Mr. Massingberd Home may claim to have done it with at least an average of ability and success. Rhoda, the heroine of the story, is a pretty picture of a girl, and we feel for the irremediable sorrow, described not without pathos, of the good "Squire," who finds that her love is given to another. Nothing in the book is likely to make any great impression on the reader, but everything, on the other hand, is natural and in good-taste, and an hour or two may be spent, if not with much excitement, yet without dullness and without offence, on Carstairs.