The Square Mile: a Story of Ways and Means. By
Horace W. C. Newte. (Alston Rivers. 6s.)—This novel belongs to what may be called the modern photographic class of fiction. The hero is a bank clerk, and the book is concerned with a minute analysis of his life from early manhood to later middle age. This method of construction, by its very nature, precludes an artistic development of the plot, as the events are recorded in a series as they occur from day to day and from week to week. The unfortunate hero of the novel, Anthony Posket Pilkington, is particularly unhappy in his marriage. It is difficult to believe in quite so unsympathetic a figure as his wife Gertrude. In real life very few people are quite black without a redeeming feature, as is the case with Mrs. Pilkington. The book flows easily on from episode to episode, and is written with C011SidOrable amount of realism. That it cannot be called original is hardly the fault of the author. The middle-class story of this type is much in fashion just now, and The Square Mile is, on the whole, a favourable specimen of its kind.
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