The Wingless Victory. By M. P. Willcocks. (John Lane. 6s.)—
Except for the descriptions of scenery in Devonshire and North COrnwall, it is impossible to call this a pleasant noveL The book is a psychological study of a woman who has married a man who does not specially interest her, for the very natural, if rather unattractive, reason that there was no one else for her to marry. The heroine, Wilmot Borlace, is drawn with extreme care, and the author has spared no pains to produce a finished portrait of a living woman. Yet, after all, Wilmot does not strike the reader as being altogether natural. It is impossible to deny that there might be a woman like her ; but the development of her character does not seem consistent and inevitable. Her husband, Dr. Borlace, though not so careful a study, is far more successful, and his faults and qualities will strike most people as being very human. There is no particular plot in the book, which is more a study of a few years of a woman's life than a novel. Miss Willcooks, as in her fo rmer book, writes forcibly and picturesquely, and the descriptions of Cornish scenery are full of light and colour. Nevertheless, no one except the serious-minded reader who loves a problem novel should embark upon The Wingless Victory.
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