MY BROTHER TICE KING.*
Tnis book has the format of a. novel rather than of a gift. book: it has no pictures for one thing, and these we may suppose to be Sc rigueur for the latter class. Nevertheless it is in this class that we propose to include it, and this, we may say, without the least idea of depreciation. The writer of this notice has had a very large experience of both kinds of fiction, and he has no hesitation in saying that, setting aside a small section of the novel class, the average gift-book is at least equal in literary merit and superior in every other respect.
The situation which is -developed into the story of Mg
• Xy Brother the King. By Edward H. Cooper. London : John Lane. pea Brother the King is briefly this. Sir Francis Darcy takes a party in the ' Cloud,' a large steam yacht, with six cannon of the newest fashion, into the Arctic regions. Here it comes about, from causes which need not be detailed, that the yacht becomes fixed for the winter at a Samoyede village where there is a small Russian fort. The elders of the party have to leave, and Jim Darcy, a Harrow boy, aged sixteen, becomes the principal personage ; it is Jim who is developed into "my brother the Bing," a title borrowed, we may say, from a phrase which is often in the mouth of a certain Wye- marks Darcy, a young lady well known to all who have had the good fortune of being Mr. E. H. Cooper's readers. We have never seen anything better in its way than the story of how Jim takes up the responsibilities of his new position. He is always haunted by the fear that some of his Harrow school-fellows will turn up, and that he will become the object of almost unbearable chaff; and of course he is shy, has mis- givings about his crown, regal robes, and the general paraphernalia of his position ; but he shrinks from nothing, and is afraid of nothing. The Samoyedes are to have a Constitution, Courts of Justice, a police, &c. ; they are to be taught how to protect themselves from the swindling of foreign traders. This and much more Jim sets himself to do with absolute sincerity and earnestness, and with a gravity which is never disturbed. There are various complications. Two Scotsmen, who have mixed themselves up with Nihilist societies, have been exiled to Siberia, and have escaped, make their appearance ; the Russian garrison of the fort has to be disarmed; there are political complications, and so forth. In short, there is an abundance of good matter, of which Mr. Cooper makes excellent use. We could have done without the episode of Lana, though this is quite harmless. My Brother the King is a thoroughly good bit of work. We are sorry to know that we shall have no more work from his hand. Mr. Cooper died last April.
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