2 JULY 1892, Page 34

The Great Men. By John Davidson. (Ward and Downey.)— There

are some forcible things in this book. The "Schoolboy's Tragedy" is perhaps the best. The intentionally humorous things have failed to amuse us, and extravagances which claim to describe things that will be hereafter, have ceased to please. It is a line of speculation which is too easy to interest.—A North- Country Comedy. By M. Betham-Edwards. (Henry and Co.)— We must frankly own that we have never found any one of Miss Betham-Edwards's books so hard to read. A contribution to a "Library of Wit and Humour" seems to be about as difficult a thing to make good as a prize-poem.