NOVELS AND TALES.—Fair Helen. By William Graham. 3 vols.. (F.
V. White).—There are some odd things in this book. Witness the way in which Mr. Erskine talks to a lady of his acquaintance (i., 83-4), and the strange statement that Byron (of all the poets that have ever been) " wrote from the heart ;" and, in quite another line, the scene that surely mortal eyes never saw,—peasants dancing to the music of the bag-pipes on a sailing-boat on Loch Awe (i., 29). Strangest of all is the hero's ideal—Fair Helen. Why in the world should a somewhat blasé and mercenary man of fashion make a
heroine of this cause determine belli Not a little of these three volumes might with advantage have been omitted, and if it had been suppressed altogether—vile danznum.—Through Shine and Shower. By Lady Danboyne. 2 vols. (James Blackwood).—We do not know which is the more wearying, the "shine" or the "shower." The one we have in some three or four hundred pages of love- making in London drawing-rooms and on race-courses, the other in the tragic story of an Irish landlord, who is shot by some of his tenantry. The author has not the sense either of humour or of pathos, and she fails either to interest or to amuse- -Young and Fair, by Vossian (Barns and Oates), is a some- what tragical story, considering the purpose for which, as we learn from the title-page, it is intended, " to while away a waste hour for the writer ;" but it is at least well meant, and the heroine, though she has an unhappy lot, makes an edifying end.—From the same publishers we have Ariel : or, the Chapel of the Angels, by the Author of " Lady Glastonbury's Boudoir,"—a well-written story of common life, with the element of the picturesque, and even the romantic, more than commonly developed in it. There is just a touch of controversy in it ; but it need not offend, or spoil for any reader a pleasant book. —We have also received The Story of Meg, by M. A. Austin, 2 vole. (Remington) ; and For Love and Duty : a Romance of the Peerage, 2 vols., by Edmond Garth-Thompson (Remington) ; the " fourth edition " of Alderryde a Border Story of Seventy Years Ago, by Annie S. Swan (Oliphant, Anderson, and Ferrier, Edinburgh) ; and Jock Halliday a Grassmarket Hero, by Robina F. Hardy, from the same publisher, a tale which has reached its "ninth thousand."
Among books that do not require special or detailed notice, we have received the following :—The Hymns of Martin Luther, set to their original melodies, with an English version, edited by L. W. Bacon and N. H. Allen (Hodder and Stoughton).—Treatise on the Love of God, by the Rev. H. B. Mackey (Burns and Oates).—Modern Criticism, and Clement's Epistles to Virgins, by J. M. Cotterill (T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh).—Sermons for the Church's Year, original and selected, edited by the Rev. W. Benham, B.D. ; Volume I., Advent to Trinity (Griffith and Ferran, London ; Dutton and Co., New York).— The Logical English Grammar, by F. G. Fleay, M.A. (Swan Sonnen- schein and Co.)—Low's Solid Geometry, Part I. (Longmans, Green, and Co.)—Great Englishwomen ; Parables from Nature, by Mrs. Gatti ; and The Romance of the Court, by J. Runciman, additions to "Bell's Reading Book" series issued by Messrs. G. Bell and Sons.—England and Ireland, by Emily Thurafield, an addition to the excellent "Highwayeof History " series issued by Messrs. Rivingtons. —History of the OrrrEwing Case, by W. C. Spens (W. Green, Edin- burgh).—Olde Ffrencles wyth Newe Faces, a fac-simile reprint of old ballads and chap-stories, with very lively coloured illustrations (Field and Tuer.)—A new edition of The Alpine Water Cure, by A. T. Wise, M.D. (Ballibre and Co.)—Handbook to South and East Africa (D. Currie and Co.)—Concerning Carpets and Art Decoration of Floors (Waterlow and Sons).— A Painting Book for Children, by Kate Greenaway (Routledge and Sons).
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