The Strange Adventure of James Shervinton. By Louis Backe. (T.
Fisher tinwin. 6s.)—Mr. Becke is seen to advantage in this collection of tales and " notes" (records of actual experiences and observation). The story from which the volume takes its title is distinctly effective, though the ending of it is too much like the process of solving a complicated problem by passing a sponge over it. What the railway accident does in home fiction is left to the earthquake in the Pacific. The other stories are shorter and less important, and, in fact, are more like incidents of travel than tales properly so called. It is curious to see what kind of im- pression the German trader or sailor generally leaves wherever he goes. They are called " Dutchmen " by way of reproach, itself a back-handed blow in another direction. On the whole, they have not the reputation for humanity, high breeding, and honesty which would do something to justify the critical attitude which they delight in assuming. The book concludes with a very curious picture of a South Sea Napoleon, one who would have imitated the career of Kamehameha I. if fortune had favoured,— happily it did not.
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