8 APRIL 1865, Page 21

Once and Again. By the Author of Cousin Stella. (Smith

and Elder.) —An exceedingly readable book, full of pleasant sketches of French society, of characters which live and move, and of incidents which if not probable seem so as one reads of them. Mrs. Templar, the proud, • embittered Englishwoman, who does her duty and hates it and herself for doing it, M. de Blacourt, the French Marquis, so innately a gentle- man that he seems weak, yet relied upon by all his acquaintance for energy and judgment, Gustave, the low-born, esurient French author, who wins fame by novels of the dangerous class, M. Granson, swindler, bully, and murderer, are all well done, and though the incidents are too melodramatic, that reflection does not occur till one has laid down the book. To those who like to be amused without too much thought, yet cannot read inferior work, we can cordially recommend it.