The Letters which Never Reached Him. (Eveleigh Nash. 6e.)— The
anonymity of this novel is carried to such a point that the reader lays it down without the slightest idea of the names of either of the two characters about whom he has been interesting himself. Perhaps, had this not been the case, he would have interested himself more, for namelessness is a great non-con- ductor of sympathy. The book is not a story, only the most shadowy outline of a plot emerging from its sixty-odd letters, even the nationality of the heroine being left in doubt. About half-way through the reader comes to the conclusion from internal evidence that the writer of the letters is a German, but no explanation of the fact that they are written in English is vouch- safed. There are touches here and there which make one feel as if the author had something of the spirit of that " Elizabeth " who lives in a German garden. But " Elizabeth " must have been in deep mourning, mentally and physically, to have written this book. In spite of its clumsy structure and unconvincing characters, there is something in this volume whicl. makes it too attractive to be laid down unfinished, even by a person who thinks its whole plan of construction irritating in the extreme. The comments on the political state of China and on America are shrewd and far-seeing, and an interesting book might have been made out of the materials at the author's disposal.
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