2 FEBRUARY 1907, Page 21

The Amulet. By Charles Egbert Craddock. (Macmillan and Co. 6s.)—This

is an interesting little novel dealing with the British frontier in America in the year 1763. Although earnest students of Fenimore Cooper will be disappointed that "Charles Egbert Craddock" gives them no Indian horrors, the account of life in a frontier fort in those days is well worth reading. The book brings out prominently the artificial nature of society in the eighteenth century, the costume and sayings of the ladies in the fort being in very singular contrast to the nature of their surroundings. The interest of the story lies entirely in the author's realisation and vivid picture of eighteenth-century personages and their surroundings. The plot itself is common- place and the character-drawing not very subtle. But the book will enable its readers to realise with a thrill the isola- tion of the little band of British soldiers in the middle of the wilderness, and the terrible dangers which they ran from their crafty and implacable enemies.