30 DECEMBER 1865, Page 18

The Old Ledger. By G. L. M. Strauss. 3 vols.

(Tinsley.)—Wading our way very tediously through the first volume, it struck us that the only thing wanting to carry out the illusion suggested by the name and the style was to have the book bound in one large folio, with sides of rough calf inlaid with slabs of reddish resale leather, and a back composed exclusively of reddish russia. This is evidently the meaning of Mr. Strauss's motto, "In magnis voluisse sat est ;" it is enough to aim at the grand style of the ledger. But then he should keep up appearances. Our useful friend the Post-Office Directory would lose half its customers if it came out in about thirty volumes post octavo, and sacrificed to its new form by romancing about the facts it had to convey. However, after giving us exactly forty pages of a will, Mr. Strauss repents, and goes in for crimes, marriages, and mysteries. We will _merely. lint to him that his last chapter contains an admirable idea for a plot, if he had made his plot depend on that, instead of bringing it in as a bit of narra- tive and explanation. He has one or two very dramatic passages, one or two ideas about genuine "plot interest," and we might hope some- thing from him if he would give up his sneers and digressions, his long- winded superfluities and the new lights he throws on every fact of his- tory; if he would have some more regard for the lives and characters of his actors, and above all, if he would reverse his motto, and do instead of willing.