CURRENT LITERATURE.
A. False Start. By Hawley Smart. 3 vols. (Chapman and Hall.) —Every one knows Mr. Hawley Smart's novels well enough to vouch for their readableness, and for a fair amount of interest in the plot. We do not ourselves care very much for them ; and this is not one of the best specimens, though there is certainly striking originality in the idea of the wedding-present which brings the fortune to the heroine, and all the misfortunes of the story to the hero. But a book in which loose English like the following is continually recurring is always very trying to us, and should be exceptionally powerful in some other direction to recompense us for the annoyance :—" Which by no means follows you would have done what Mr. Enderby wished you ;" or, "How I did enjoy those two days at Ascot ; and I am sure you would have too, Mama, if you had only been there." The first volume is very trite and commonplace,—a picture of commonplace, pompous, middle-class, country-town gossips and scandal-mongers, bent upon getting a young and handsome curate into trouble. The second volume is devoted to horse-racing, and the mischances of the sporting curate, with an episode of an adventurous blackleg who is exposed. The third volume might be a separate story, as we lose sight of all the characters except the hero, who gives up the Church for the Army, and does brave and daring deeds in Zululand, establishing the real soundness of his character, but losing his life.
Previous page
