3 MAY 1890, Page 24

Olga Zanetli. By Fairfax L. Cartwright. 3 vols. (Swan Sonnenschein

and Co.)—The tendency of the rank and file of novel-writers to make up by realism what they want in skill is manifest in " Fairfax L. Cartwright." In " a tale of an Imperial city " we are introduced to a variety of realistic but highly impro- bable characters, who sometimes do as others do, but often behave in the most illogical manner. They are creations of the crudest description, and even when they are made to assume some semblance of life by the committal of unsavoury crimes, no one can regard them as aught but palpable forgeries. Olga Zanelii might have been an average novel, as novels go ; but whatever claims the story may have are spoilt by the weakness and the unnatural- ness of the characters.