Rulers of Kings. By Gertrude Atherton. (Macmillan and Co. 6s.)—The
extreme popularity of the "Royal" novel—that is, the novel in which the heroine or hero belongs to one of the Royal houses of Europe—has induced Mrs. Atherton to try a variation in the species. The usual plan has been first to invent a small kingdom in that convenient corner of Eastern Europe where boundaries are a little uncertain. There the writer places a reigning house, which he manoeuvres into those positions of difficulty and embarrassment which appeal to him most. Mrs. Atherton has, to use a slang phrase, " gone one better" than this. She is content with nothing less than the Austrian Empire as her miss-en-scene, and she puts in most of the members of the house of Hapsburg, avec noms et prenems, without mincing matters. Having established a foundation of truth, she proceeds to embroider upon it, and gives the Emperor a very spirited daughter, called Ranata, who has ambitions and political ideals of her own. The German Emperor is cast as what may be called the "first walking gentleman" of the piece, and to make things piquant, the hero is the only son of a colossal American millionaire, who is allowed to dispose of his father's millions in pursuance of his political ambitions,—ambitions which are the desired outcome of the peculiar training to which his father subjected him in his childhood. It is almost needless to say that this gentleman eventually marries Ranata. Setting aside the question as to whether it is in good taste to put living people into books in fictitious circumstances, the interest of a novel of this kind depends on whether the author can make his reader believe his story. Tastes, of course, differ ; but the present writer must own to finding the book as little interesting as would be a novel founded on what would have happened in Russia supposing Napoleon's defeat at Moscow had been a victory. The fact is that the historical novel, if it is to be entirely in- accurate, must not be concerned with a well-known period of history. It is as impossible to believe in the Princess Ranata as in Napoleon crowned in the Kremlin as Emperor of All the Russias. It thus becomes very difficult to judge the book on its merits, as the first element of success in such fiction—credibility- is so entirely lacking.
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