19 AUGUST 1876, Page 20

So Sinks the Day-Star. By James Keith. (Samuel Tinsley.)— There

is nothing that calls for particular comment in this book. We have for the parents of the heroine a very ordinary pair of parvenus, and the heroine herself, although introduced as a great paragon, does not strike us as much of an improvement in point of manners. We utterly fail to see the necessity of the tragedy at the end of the story. Of course, it is possible for a bride to drop down dead at "the altar," but we must protest at such an incident being introduced into a work of fiction without good reason, and particularly where, as here, the rest of the book is tame to weariness, and in no way prepares us for such a denouement.