Fashion and Passion. By the Duke of Medina Pomar. (Chapman
and Hall.)—Nothing can be worse than this book. Its author evidently thinks that sketches of living persona thinly disguised by panning names will interest the kind of public which used to read aristocratic novels, and if he thinks a success among ladies'-maids worth having, he may possibly be gratified. Ladies and gentlemen will, however, re- gard his work with the annoyance with which they witness any other breach of the laws of society, unredeemed either by an object, or by the originality and power to which such breaches are occasionally forgiven. Fashion and Passion is excessively tedious, and not a bit less so because most of the author's heroes are " cads " with big names and outrageous manners, and many of his heroines "women of fashion" who sigh to visit the Argyle Rooms. The story reminds us of nothing so much as one of those old Minerva Press novels which we once out of a literary curiosity waded through. We question, however, if some of those who are heavily quizzed will be induced by the tedium of the story to forgive their introduction into it, or to consider that the Duke of Medina Pomar is sufficiently excused by his foreign training for his contempt of the react:Incas always observed in English good society.
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