The Margravine : a Story of the Turf. By W.
G. Craven. 2 vole. (Chapman and Hall.)—There is a strange mixture of elements in the Margravine; there is the sporting novel, which is the chief constituent ; there is the melodrama ; and there is the ordinary fiction of social life. A young lady, whose love has been slighted by the man on whom it is bestowed, vows revenge, and obtains it by winning the heart of the man who has scorned her under a disguise which neither be nor the rest of the world can penetrate. Besides this, she mixes herself up with racing matters, whether for the love of them, or for the sake of furthering her revenge, we are not quite sure. This gives the author the opportunity of describing some villanies of tho racing world, a task which he per- forms with much zeal and energy. We do not profess quite to under- stand the mancsuvres and counter-mancsuvres, but we carry away from the reading of the story a general impression that the honest man among turf speculators is, as the cynic said of the good wife, an eel in a bag of snakes. But it is idle to write against these people, who are necessary, it would seem, to the pleasures of society, and of whom, therefore, the moralists will never be able to rid us,—"quod in civitate tundra et vetabitur semper et retinebitur." The Margravine has some well- drawn scenes, and is, on the whole, a readable novel.
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