1 MARCH 1902, Page 22

The Story of Teresa. By Anne Macdonell. (Methuen and Co.

Cs.)—Mies Dfacdonell would have been more successful had her story been less lengthy. It requires enormous talent to write a book as long as The Story of Teresa without its dragging. Realism, characterieation, wit, construction,—all must be strained to their utmost to keep the reader entertained in a novel so long as to be divided into three books, none of them short. Miss Macdonell is not equal to the task, and though the novel begins well it becomes decidedly long-winded later on. What a pity it is that a novel cannot be subjected to the pruning process which is the salvation of so many plays after a tedious first-night. The Story of Teresa well pruned and condensed might be made really readable.