28 MAY 1881, Page 23

Novres,—Pelic'y and Passion. By Mrs. Campbell Freed. 3 vols. (Bentley.)—Australia,

is evidently already beginning to rival the mother-country in ono branch at least of production, that of tho novel. Policy and Passion might have been written by one of the 1111.110§ 1110' handle dangerous social topics with such courage. Where it iliffer'S. from their work, it differs for the better by a more vigormis and, We may say, on the whole a more wholesome treatment, and by a more distinct characterisation. There is no mistaking the scene of action. It is not one of the stories which, a few names being changed, might be located in any part of the world where an English-speaking race, is found. Wo should know ourselves to be in the colony of tropical Australia, did not the name of Leichardtslaud so easily suggest that

of Queensland. And the atmosphere of the book is somewhat tropical, so much so that it makes us doubt whether, if this be a true picture of life in those regions, the colonists of the fifth generation will be found to possess the same qualities as Mrs. Praed attri- butes to the colonists of the second ; whether, in fact, they will not be found to be far more like Mexicans than Englishmen. The heroine of the book is Honoria, the daughter of the Premier of Leichardts- land ; the real hero, her father, a man who has made his way up to the top of society in the colony, but is weighted by a dark past, and hampered by passions which ho has not learnt to control. To the colony end to the Premier's house there comes from England one Hardress Barrington, a man who has boon forced to leave the Guards. (Mrs. Praed seems a little confused between " the Guards " and the " Life Guards.") Great pains have been taken with this personage, but ho seems to us a failure. He uses a metaphysical eloquence which does great credit to Mrs. Praed's cleverness, but is very much out of place in a ruined man of fashion. He is possessed of a strange mesmeric influence, which nearly enables him to work great mischief. And he seems to have been as remarkable as a boy as he is as a man. lie wept when he saw a fine landscape ; he wept when he heard an opera. His love-affair with Ilonoria, and the liaison between the Premier and a certain Mrs. Valiancy, occupy the grouter portion of the book. These are powerfully described, but they ere net the best part of it. This is rather to be found in some of the minor char- acters, such as Lord and Lady Dolph and Agatha Ferris, and in the descriptions of scenery and the graphic presentments of life generally. —Idonea. By Anne Beale. 3 vols. (Hurst and Blackett.)—The plot of this novel is chiefly concerned with the disappearance and ultimate discovery of one Clarinda Fairborn. To this effort of Miss Bealo's invention wo cannot afford much praise. It seems to us to want probability, which is not, however, a matter of much importance ; and to be without sufficient interest, which is a much more serious affair. A much more attractive part of the tale is the love between Neville Fairborn and the heroine, Idonea. Idonea is the daughter of a very poor and very proud widow, who is compelled to take the position of companion to a family of nouveaux riches. This family is well drawn, and without the caricature which, in such a portraiture, it is not easy to avoid. Here, in truth, is the charm of Idonea. It is an easy, natural, pleasantly-written story. The development of incident has no very special interest, yet we read on with pleasure. The people we meet please us or interest us. Every one, however small the part that lie or she plays in the little drama, is well and carefully drawn. The two ladies who let lodgings, for instance, are both characteristically described. We may say generally of Idonea that, without reaching any high level of literary skill, it is a thoroughly wholesome and readable novel.--My Lady Coquette. By "Rita." 3 vols. (Tinsley Brothers.)—"Yolande," the daughter of an old country gentleman, is very much affronted by the censure, as she takes it to be, of one Denzil Charberis, who is, and yet is not, her lover. She vows to have vengeance on him. Before long, it seems possible that she has had this vengeance in a very unladylike way. Denzil Cherleris disappears, and Yolanda is accused of having murdered him, though there are not unreason- able doubts whether a girl could have thrown a full-grown man into a pond from which some remains, decomposed beyond all power of recognition, but supposed to be those of Charteris, have been drugged out. Then Yolaude disappears, and is found after a while as the governess is a school. Here the fatal gift of beauty attracts another love, that of a neighbouring baronet, and, as a necessary consequence, another hatred, that of Janet Croft, a young lady from whose "cold, watchful eyes" the experienced novel-reader justly apprehends much mischief to come. Then Denzil turns up again. It has been only another of his strange absences. Vengeance gives place to love. But there are other complications, which we need not follow out, Those and the ceding the reader may, if he please, discover for himself. He will discover them amid much fine-writing, not very pleasing in itself, bet not inappropriate, perhaps, to a story which seems to us very far remote from the interests of actual life.--Dunidzonington Rectory. By the Author of " Marriage it le Mode." (Romingtou.)—The two curates whose adventures are here told represent Low Church and High Church respectively. The first is a stupid caricature ; we do not know that the second, who is meant as the author's ideal, is much more attractive. Caricature, without any sense or humour, characterises the whole book. A short tale, entitled, "Only a Love Story," which is appended, is a little better, But we hope that the editors of magazines are not so sus- ceptible as the hero of the story.—Of Ashton Hall, by 0. S. Round (Ward, Lock, mid Co.), there is little to be said, except to note a style perhaps as cumbrous and incorrect as anything we commonly meet with.