Reginald Bramble. A Cynic of the Nineteenth Century. An Auto-
biography. (Henry S. Ring and Co.)—Accustomed as one grows to the general dreariness of modern fiction, there is one particular kind of dreariness which never fails to aggravate, and which is a distinct source of vexation ; it is that of the pseudo-philosophic-satirical novel, written by one who is neither a philosopher nor a satirist. The feebleness of it, the pretentiousness of it, the affected knowingness, -which is mere copyism of indifferent models! Reginald Bramble is an extreme case in point. From the fair pensive saint, with the swindling uncle, to the Lady Dazzletons and Countesses of So-and-So, easily recog- nisable social portraits, every one of the female charmers "escaped" by the cynic of the nineteenth century has been put in a book dozens of times. We know them as well as Mrs. Henry Wood's parlour-maids, or Miss Braddon's idolised daughters of "golden papas " ; and they play the dreary old tricks, and are found out in the dreary old way, which is much older than Gilbert Gurney," but which we mentally date from him, because Theodore Hook made matrimonial manceuvring genuinely amusing. Mr. Reginald Bramble doesn't.
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