Growth. By Graham Travers (Margaret Todd, IL]).) (A. Constable and
Co. 6s.)—Dr. Todd is probably herself a graduate of Edinburgh University, and it is therefore with some diffidence that we venture to offer a criticism of the University element in her book. Although doubtless there are a certain number of Wesleyans and other Nonconformists at Edinburgh, yet the English reader will be surprised, in reading a book of which the Scene is laid in that city, to find not a single mention of the Church of Scotland, the Free Church, or the United Presby- terians. It must, of course, be understood that the novel is dated some fifteen years ago. Edinburgh certainly does not strike the visitor as being a centre of Nonconformity in the English sense of the word, and it is extremely odd to read a long novel in which the chief characters belong to the University, while the types of religion which are contrasted are Nonconformity—by which we presume the author means Wesleyanism—and the Church of Rome. The religious atmosphere of the book is like the atmo- sphere of Mrs. Oliphant's "Chronicles of Carlingford," and the pictures of " Chapel " life are drawn from obvious knowledge of the details of these organisations. The most interesting part of the story is when the heroine, Judith Lemaistre, goes abroad. The scenes laid in St. Peter's are decidedly impressive, and the author seems to have more sympathy with the religions atmosphere of the South than with that of the North. The novel is a little dis- connected, and would be the better for some compression, or, at any rate, for being more closely knit together. Nevertheless, it is a relief, after the slight and sketchy specimens of fiction which are published as complete novels, to come across a piece of con- scientious and detailed work, even if that work is not completely successful.
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