TALEa. — Locked Up. By Major Arthur Griffiths. (1V. Blackwood and Sons.)—Major
Griffiths has made the beet of a not very profitable story. An heiress concealed under the disguise of a shop-girl, and a young officer who falls in love with her, may be described as the hero and heroine. Then there is an usurping uncle, and there is a missing will which is to oust him from possession and restore the heiress to her rights. The question is,—Will the will be found ? To this a certain convict has a good deal to say. How he intrigues and schemes and searches, how ho is foiled, and how the right triumphs in the end, is the subject of Locked Up, a somewhat commonplace story, redeemed from failure by undoubted cleverness in the manner of telling.—A Millionaire of Rough and Ready. By Bret Harto. (F. V. White)—This is a fine story of the vicissitudes of mining. The plot is somewhat complicated, and will probably suc- ceed in baffling the reader, sinless he is more than usually ingenious. But it is in the picture of life and the drawing of character that the book excels. The miner who succeeds and the miner who fails are equally vivid presentments ; the former, with his simplicity and directness, quite admirable. Among the lesser figures may be men- tioned the Spanish proprietor, with his old-world ways and mauness, sharply contrasted with the new world springing up around him, and the brisk young editor,—Honours Divided, by H. T. Johnson (Fan Office), is a briskly written, readable novelette. We have a concealed marriage, an unknown heir, a couple of extravagant aristo- crats, a drunken half-pay officer (who is restored to sobriety and to a Military career in a somewhat surprising way), his two beautiful daughters, "poor but honest," and the necessary villains. Their villainy has mush to do with the turf, and we cannot but wish that the fame and fortune of the hero had been saved in some more creditable way than by making a large sum through bets on the Derby. But the story is sufficiently wholesome.—Told in a Trance. (Swan Son- nenschein and Co.)—This is a story of clairvoyance used to detect a murder. The plot is not very well contrived. The evidence produced under the influence of the mysterious power suggests the idea of an afterthought. The reader knows perfectly well, before it is given, where the guilt rests, and cannot but think that the truth might have been revealed in some lees extraordinary way. In fact, the deity intervenes without the dignus vindice nodes.—Wrecked in London. By Walter Fairlie. (Vizetelly.)—This is a story of the sorrows and sins of London and Paris. There is a heartrending narrative of an innocent girl decoyed away and ruined. She was innocent, but then she was a fool. And what machinery of laws, what private vigilance, will avail to save fools from themselves ? Wrecked in London is a painful story written with admirable intentions, for which we wish the best success.
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