Strange Waters. By It. E. Francillon. 3 vols. (Bentley.)—This is
a novel of the musical world, but not without interest to readers to whom that world is partly or wholly unknown. Andrew Gordon is a musical enthusiast, who has made in his youth a success which ho himself thoroughly despises, as having been won by work which was not really true to art. He devotes his life (which his friends and family are made to believe has come to an end) to composing something which shall be so true. For this object he sacrifices, or is ready to sacrifice, every- thing. How be works out this purpose, and how he finds nature too strong for him, is told with considerable power. The tale, however, is not so novel as the characters in it. These are drawn with a skill and liveliness which cannot fail to attract. Clan, the great singer, with her
magnificent voice, asserting a mastery over the feelings of humanity with which art in itself, however admirable, is quite unable to contend, and Prosper, the shrewd manager, are personages quite as definite as -the enthusiastic musician, and certainly more intelligible. Nor are the minor characters wanting in interest, as they are certainly not wanting in vanity. The Countess of Quine, with her affectation of Bohemian tastes, the curate and his wife, and Walter, the "agreeable rattle," who has to play the necessary part of a lover, and does it very well, all these and others too numerous to mention, fill the stage in a creditably picturesque and natural manner. Altogether, this is a very readable novel.
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