That Affair. By Annie Thomas. (F. V. White and Co.)—The
most obvious and distinguishing fault of That Affair is "gush," and " gush " of an apparently hopeless persistence. Annie Thomas has, we see, four other novels after her name, and should have learnt to portray noble characters without lavishing such a flood of endearment on them, and bad ones without treating them with such overwhelming obloquy. It is disheartening to find a writer, apparently of experience, using the historical present in such inappropriate places, and writing in such a continued strain of adoration. A schoolgirl might possibly relish That Affair, but whatever good points there may be as to passion, description, and management of her characters, are to us hopelessly degraded by the wearisome reiteration of an accumulation of epithets and the most extravagant language.
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