7'he Village Comedy. By Mortimer and Frances Collins. 3 vole.
(Hurst and Blackett.)—We are sorry to say, that reading this novel with the most favourable disposition and the best desire to be pleased, we found it decidedly dull, and this though circumstances chanced to have made us acquainted with the local and personal allusions with which it abounds. It is this local element that seems to be the raison d'être of the book. "Manly Frowde " is a portrait of Mr. Mortimer Collins himself. We have no wish to criticise it. Those who knew the original can hardly have any but kindly thoughts of him, and it is only natural that his collaborateur should paint his picture with the brightest colours. Some of the other personages are drawn in an un- friendly, and in one instance at least, as the present writer is convinced, in an unjust spirit. Apart, however, from the truth or untruth of par- ticular sketches, the plan of the book seems a decided mistake. The personal interest, even at the best, is but limited and transitory. Great artists, it is true, build their idealisations on the foundation of the real, but we do not have their greatness here. These, their faithfulness being granted, are photographs, not pictures. As for the plot of the story, it is of but little worth, and it deals mach more than we like with persons of doubtful, or worse than doubtful, character.
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