The Plough of Shame. By. Mary Bradford Whiting. (J. M.
Dent and Co. 6s.)—This is a story of the Renaissance, and no less a figure than that of Michael Angelo is introduced among the personages. Miss Whiting reproduces the life and colour of the Renaissance with much descriptive power. Her book will make most readers feel extremely glad that, in spite of the wonder of the great rebirth of art, they themselves were not called upon to run the innumerable risks inseparable from life in those days. The cruelty of the time, as well as its magnificence, are depicted in this story with a firm hand, and the intricacies of the plot are well developed and carefully carried out. The figure of the beautiful Marchese Alderoni might have stepped complete out of one of Leonardo's canvases, and the masques and pageants in the book are cleverly described. Any one who can make the Renaissance live before our eyes deserves our gratitude. For people who were safely born in the nineteenth century it is a delightful pastime to imagine the light and colour of those wonderful days.
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