Monks Norton: a Tale of English Country Life. By the
Author of "Mary Powell." 2 vols. (Bentley.)—We had read one of the volumes before looking at the title-page, and our impression, wholly unprejudiced therefore, was that the story was spun out of very slender materials, but well spun, and that the dialogue was remarkably easy and skilfully managed. In the second volume there is a little more incident, and one's interest is really awakened. Of course one expects that the pros- porous and somewhat spoilt family will come to trouble, and one is equally confident that their poor and sensible relatives will prosper. One of these, it is true, has to be sacrificed, we may conjecture, to the difficulty of finding a suitable husband for her ; but the author haw kindly kept her in the background, and she is little more than a name. After this blow has been inflicted on the family we are sure- that the worst is over, and that the lover of the real heroine will come back safe even from beyond the North Pole. If the book is but slight, it is certainly graceful and pleasant, easy reading without doubt, and quite possibly profitable.
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