Daniel Quayne. By J. S. Fletcher. (John Murray. 6s.)—This book,
though extremely gloomy reading, is both powerful and well written. The male characters, however, are far better drawn than Rosanna, the heroine, who is, to tell the truth, rather a stiff and unconvincing figure. The reader cannot in the least realise her as a sort a lower-class Messalina, and her self- control, which never seems to break down unless she wishes, is really unnatural. A woman whose interests are so self-centred as Rosanna's would not have allowed casual strangers to make love to her to the detriment of her prospects. Neither would she for so long have preserved her decorous attitude towards Campion. Rosanna has not the qualities of her defects, and therefore fails to be altogether lifelike. On the other hand, Daniel Quayne, the hero, is in literature what Frederick Walker's heroio peasants are in art. His character is finely portrayed, and the reader feels that he knows him through his very silence and self-restraint. The fatal ending of the book is as inevitable as the conoluding scene of a Greek tragedy. Indeed, Sarah Quayue, Daniel's old aunt, sounds the note of warning in the very first chapter. The descriptions of farm life at Middlethorpe Grange are picturesquely given, and there is much of the charm of country life in the book.
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