His Great Self. By Marion Harland. (Frederick Warne and Co.)—This
is a very remarkable American story,—a story of the Union when it was very much younger than it is at the present time. The America which figures here is the America in which Virginia, with its slave-trade and special aristocratic tastes, was dominant. The strength of this story, indeed, lies in its depicting with no inconsiderable amount of skill, the men and women who figured in this old Virginian society, rather than any particular member of it. No doubt Colonel Byrd, as the name of the book indicates, is intended to be the strongest character in the book, all compact of egotism as he is. But, for one thing, he is rather overshadowed by the sinister personality of his secretary, Colin Bass. For another, even his egotism occasionally recalls the unreality of that of Patriarch Casby before it is subjected to the merciless shears of Pancks. Evelyn, besides, acts too much also like a person who is pursued by the Fates, and not like a young woman of spirit who, attached to a lover—that lover an Englishman with a great historic name—ought to have defied her father to the uttermost. Some of the minor characters, too—such as Mistress Martha Jacqueline and the remarkable Negro, Caliban—are really well drawn. All deductions being made, His Great Self must be allowed to be one of the strongest fictions, especially of the historical kind, which have been pub- lished of recent years. Its author is morally certain to do much better work, one of these days.
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