CURRENT LITERATURE.
it Princess of Jutedom. By Charles Gibbon. $ vols. (Ward and Downey.)—It is somewhat late in the day, we fear, to notice this novel, superseded as it is by at least one more recent from the writer's prolific pen. Still, we should like to say a good word for it. It is a very brisk, stirring story. The villainous manager somewhat reminds us of Mr. Carker in "Dombey and Son." Yet he has an individuality of his own, and the portraiture of him is not disfigured by the perpetual repetition of little personal details— the white teeth, for instance—which so annoy us in Dickens. " Jute- dom," it should be explained, is that region of commerce which is devoted to the trade in jute, and the " Princess " is the daughter of a great merchant who has made his fortune in that line of busi- ness. It is she who, blameless and even admirable in herself, is the cause of the trouble which Mr. Gibbon relates in so vigorous a narra- tive, and which he brings to so satisfactory a termination. There is nothing especially marked in her character, nor, indeed, is it in charactendrawing that Mr. Gibbon excels ; bat the story is one of the best that he has ever written.
Previous page
