4 APRIL 1863, Page 22

A Lost Love. By Ashford Owen.— Wheat and Tares. A

Tale. (Smith, Elder, and Co.)—Both these recent additions to Messrs. Smith and Elder's well-selected series of standard authors are quite able to hold their own against any of their predecessors. "Wheat and Tares" will be favourably recollected by all readers of Fraser's Magazine. A re- perusal of "A Lost Love" has fully confirmed us in our opinion that it is one of the very best novelettes that we have ever met with It is the rare combination of a keen insight into character, abundance of quiet humour, and a remarkably pleasant and even style, which have secured for the writer, who has adopted the pseudonym of "Ashford Owen," a foremost place among the novelists of the day. Those readers who pre- fer quality to quantity will find few better shillingsworths than "A Lost Love."