Near the Tsar, near Death. By Fred. Whishaw. (Chatto and
Windns. 6a. )—There is no indication of language in Mr. Whis- haw's new book to show that it is not concerned with the present day, and most people will be surprised when internal evidence reveals to them that the Czar in question is Peter the Great. The book deals with a grim page in history,—the story of the unhappy Alexis, Peter's son. Mr. Whishaw gives the Czar a political motive for the killing of Alexis, and the whole book is an account of the struggle between father and son. But Alexis is depicted as so poor a creature (as indeed he seems to have been), that his adven- tures in his flight and final capture are not more than historically interesting. The author paints the Czar and his Court with a broad brush, and with no mincing of the coarseness, nay, bar- barism, of the Russia of that day. The novel is a clever, but of necessity an unpleasant, piece of work.
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