12 DECEMBER 1896, Page 24

A Young Wife's Ordeal. By Johanna van Woude. (Wells Gardner,

Darton, and Co.)—Madelon sets a good example to heroines by frankly declaring that she thinks, and has always thought, herself pretty. She is equally honest in all her de- scriptions of her feelings and behaviour. She lets us see that she was a self-willed and unreasonable person, and that she got at least as much happiness as she deserved. The tale is well written and, we should imagine, well translated. The life which it describes is Dutch, and the comparative novelty of the scenery will increase the interest for English readers.