5 DECEMBER 1885, Page 24

Escaped from Siberia (Routledge and Sons) is a translation by

Henry Frith from the French of MM. Tissot and Amero. A very good story it is. The hero is a student who is banished because his sympathy with the exiled poet Davidoff excites the suspicion of the authorities. Davidoff dies, and Yegor, the hero, makes his escape in company with Nadego, the old man's daughter, to whom he had been for some time engaged. They are assisted in this perilous business by one M. Lafleur, a dancing-master, who has been pursuing his -occupation in the uncongenial region of Siberia. M. Lafleur is a man of infinite resource, and is just the character which a French novelist draws with each skill. One can hardly allow that such a man, so invariably ready and successful, whatever the emergency, could exist; but he is undoubtedly a really brilliant creation. There is another -admirable character, too, in the Russian official, with the perpetual conflict in him between his officialism and his natural feelings. The adventures are moat exciting ; while the local colour is given, as far as we can judge, with great skill.