Dulcinea. By Eyre Hussey. (Edward Arnold. 6s.)—' Dulcinea' is not
the heroine of this novel, but a wonderful mare, the property of the hero, which the heroine rides to victory in a steeplechase, and which afterwards breaks her back in the hunting-field under the guidance of the said heroine. After bestowing a name of four syllables on the mare, the author has nothing more magnificent than Kitty to give his heroine for her Christian name. But if he is a little niggardly to her in this matter, nothing could be more lavishly generous than the catalogue of talents and virtues with which Kitty is credited. She not only rides in this most superior manner, but she earns an excellent livelihood by dressmaking, and in her leisure moments practises hypnotism and mesmerism. All of which would be described by " Elizabeth's gardener " as "sehr modern." There is a virtuous bookmaker, whose abruptness of manner and kindness of heart are a little conventional; a mysterious blind lady, who recovers her sight and does not lose her wonderful silver-white hair under Kitty's mesmerism—as both hair and blindness are the effects of shock, one does not understand why the treatment which cures one leaves the other unchanged—and divers other characters, who flit in a cheery manner in and out of the pages of the book. Dulcinea is not a great work, but it is quite readable as long as it is not taken too seriously.
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