Albany Stark's Revenge. 3 vols. By Richard S. Maurice. (Saunders
and Otley.)—Revenge is a subject which affords great facilities for the construction of a plot, but which nevertheless a novelist will do well to avoid. The settled enduring sense of wrong which takes any oppor- tunity that occurs of expressing itself is a common enough feeling ; so also is the revenge which hurries a man into instant action ; but the passion which dominates a man's whole soul, engrosses his whole life, and prompts him to run any risk and make any sacrifice for its gratification can hardly be said to exist in modern life. The vendetta is distinctly the characteristic of a barbarous or semi-barbarous cendition of society. The vengeance which Albany Stark endeavours to execute is of the most elaborate kind. One Richard Lee has wronged him by stealing away the affections of his affianced wife, and possessing himself of her father's property. Accordingly, he vows revenge against him and all his kith and kin. He is allowed to have his way with the bad and indifferent people, but comes to grief when he tries to meddle with the good. The I plot is full of the strangest complications, which we scarply had the patience to master. The principal instrument of the vengeance is found to be the victim's own son ; other people are found to be altogether different from what they themselves and others had supposed them to be. How very rarely this happens in real life ! There are some sconea not without vigour which the artists of the Police News might illustrate with great effect. We may mention as one of these Albany Stark's flight from the officers of justice ; but we cannot say much for the novel as a whole.
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