Eton Schooldays. By an old Etonian. (J. Maxwell and Co.)—The
success of "Tom Brown's Schooldays" produced a crop of imitators, most of whom, probably, described their own school experiences, though none of them showed either Mr. Hughes's vividness or his purpose. "Eton Schooldays" is one of them, and though as life-like as minute know- ledge and overflowing school slang can make it, it is not one of the best. A mere account of a schoolboy's life, with all he said, did, and suffered, does not suffice to make a good school story. The boy must be an indi- vidual boy, not- a marionette, with certain motives and impulses hung upon him by way of clothing ; and Butler Burke, and Parefoy, the heroes of "Eton Schooldays," are not boys at all. They do natural things enough, such as all boys do, but the reader is scarcely more interested than he might beta watching &group of lads whom he did not know, could not distinctly see, and failed altogether to hear. Even the naturalness, indeed, is more visible in trifles than in the leading incidents, for we question if an Etonian would consent to remain under the imputation of theft because the actual thief's mother asked him to save her son from being found out before the end of the half. Self-denial is an excellent quality, but one which is not often carried quite so far.
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