3 MAY 1873, Page 24

The New History of Sandford and Merton. By F. C.

Buimand. (Bradbury, Evans, and Co.)—We need not toll our readers that there is. plenty of fun to be got out of this parody of the moral tale for boys of half a century ago. Nevertheless, we confess ourselves disappointed. with it. Mr. Burnand is breaking fresh ground of which he does not understand the nature. His new book is more in Mark Twain's style of pure nonsense, but it wants the rapid succession of simple fun which characterises Mark Twain's stories, while we miss altogether the unstable, self-complacent, good-natured, yet irritable meek-mindedness of the inimitable hero of "Happy Thoughts" which constituted the irresistible, humour of the books in which that gentleman figured. Moreover, we have to object that this parody is scarcely a parody, the liberties taken with the original being so very extensive ; while the fun often ceases to be fun, by reason of its being so very forced and far-fetched.