Bound to Please. By Henry Spicer. 2 vols. (Tinsley.)—That is
hardly the view we should take of the contents of these volumes. The stories and sketches collected in them have appeared, so Mr. Spicer informs us, in All the Year Round, and he appreciates this honour so highly that he hopes it will give them favour in the oyes of his critics. It certainly was an honour to such stories to figure in Mr. Dickens' periodical, and we think the grace thus accorded to them, as it was remarkable, was also sufficient for them. They do not gain by being read one after another, even if some of them may have seemed lively and clover when associated with strange matter. So much of their comedy is mere farce of the broadest and unlikeliest description that our laughter soon grows weary. The little story called "Mutiny Aboard the Minnie Jimps " is perhaps the best specimen of Mr. Spicer's humour ; there are touches of both humour and seriousness in "A Mere Scratch," which make it readable ; and " The Horror in the House " is a practical ghost story. But after all, these papers do not attain any- thing more than the magazine standard, and many of the other papers fall below it.
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