The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come. By John Fox, jun.
(A. Constable and Co. 6s.)—Readers who are deterred by the not very attractive title from reading this book will miss a very good novel. It must be confessed, however, inasmuch as the opening of the story is by no means the best part of it, that it takes some courage to persevere with a book burdened with so cumbrous and infelicitous a name; but once it is understood that "Kingdom Come "is a place in the hills of Kentucky the reader's prejudice is abated. The most interesting part of the book is the account of the American Civil War. There have been many excellent novels about the war, but as they have mostly dealt with States which were fully committed to sympathising either with the North or the South, they have, as a rule—Mr. Winston Churchill's " Crisis " is a notable exception—not brought home to English readers quite so clearly the horrors of civil war as does this book, which deals with a State in which half the inhabitants went one way and half the other. The awful mental struggle of those men who for conscience' sake were Oliva t) take sides against their nearest relations is most poignantly described. Altogether, the book , is well worth reading, both for the romantic pictures of life in old Kentucky and for the more tragic interest of the chapters at the end.
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