13 JUNE 1891, Page 23

Golden Lives the Story of a Woman's Courage. By Frederick

Wicks. (Blackwood and Sons.)—The saerifice which the heroine inakee in Golden Lives is revolting, to say the least of it ; but though the writer hangs his plot on it, it is the characters with which he evidently desires to impress the reader. They are sketched with a great deal of caustic vigour, and one or two are distinctly good; but whether Mr. Wicks has succeeded in making them life- like, is doubtful. The style is crisp, and sometimes we have good things, though there is that indefinable straining after brevity which, when it is not happy and well-turned; irritates the reader.. We read Golden. Lives with interest, and the last chapters with some excitement ; the incidents of the poisoning and the suicide aro well worked out. s