31 MAY 1884, Page 24

Years Ago. By Sydney Lever. (Remington and Co.)—This tale opens

with a bright, pleasant account of how some English folk came to sojourn in an Italian town. Then enters upon the scene a Mon- tenegrin conspirator. All kinds of troubles and perplexities and tragedy, not to say melodroma, of a quite pronounced character, succeed to the genteel comedy which we had at the beginning. We need hardly say that this is a great disappointment. Miss Lever is capable of better things. Any one can put together these common- places of misrepresentations and mistakes ; but the gaiety and bright. ness of the opening chapter is not so easily attained. The story is in the shape of an autobiography. It should have been broken up into

portions, with different dates. The broken-hearted woman who writes the conclusion would have been thus distinguished from the light-hearted girl who writes the beginning.