A Family Tree. By Albany de Fonblanque. 3 vols. (Bentley.)—
A story cut into two parts by an interval of more than two centuries must be managed with unusual skill to be successful. Mr. de Fon- blanque is ingenious. "The Roots of It" and "The Fruits of It," as he is pleased to call the two acts of his drama, have a thread of connection between them which is not unskilfully woven, but we doubt whether the result will approve itself to readers. One thing is absolutely necessary in a novel, if it would really please. It mast be clear. The reader may be utterly at a loss to know what is to happen, but he mast be able to grasp, and grasp without any great effort of intelligence, of which indeed he is often-incapable, the whole situation at any given moment. This is not easy in the Family Tree. And so, though it is well written, though the situations are sometimes dramatic and the
incidents striking, it is hard reading. And a critic who is obliged to say of a novel that it is hard reading condemns it.
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