20 APRIL 1895, Page 25

Discords. By George Egerton. (John Lane.)—This book should be a

very precious thing to any one with leanings for pessimism. " George Egerton's " music of life is all discords. "Lust hard by Hate" is the theme which she best loves to treat. Possibly there are readers who will be pleased with her dismal threnodies over everything that is pure and hopeful in life. And when she tries, as in her last story—if story it can be called—to take what she would call a brighter tone, she is cer- tainly even more tedious, and, to our taste at least, more repulsive. We can but hope of "George Egerton," as of other writers, that the ferment of rebellion against laws that are old as society may some day work itself out. Meanwhile, the process is very nauseous to those who have anything to do with it.