29 APRIL 1905, Page 36

John Fletcher's Madonna. By Mrs. Cemyns Carr. (A. Con- stable

and Co. Cs.)—Mrs. Comyns Carr chooses an Italian heroine for her new novel. The characters of both Beatrice and her Italian friends and relations are well drawn and lifelike, and at once make the reader feel that most of the chief personages of the drama are really Italians, not English people masquerading under Italian names. The story deals with an Anglo-Italian marriage, which at one moment comes very near to catastrophe, though Mrs. Coznyns Carr has relented and provided her readers with a happy ending. Although the plot is not very new, Mrs. Carr, by the handling of her material, lends freshness to the story, and the result is a pleasing if not a very powerful novel.