More than a Million; or, a Fight for a Fortune.
2 vols. (Daldy, Isbiater, and Co.)—Mr. Brown acquires a great fortune, and wishing to make it work mischief to mankind after his death, bequeaths it to John Smith, adding no description whatever of this person. What mischief it works it is the purpose of this story to set forth. This is done with a certain amount of cleverness. One chapter especially, where the un- settling effect of a vague prospect of the vast fortune on the peaceful
relations between the minister of Succoth Chapel and his people is de- ' scribed, is very good. Were the rest of the book equal to this, it might be pronounced a great success. But it is not by any means equal to it. Much of it is sheer caricature, not a little quite irrevelant. All the elaborate description of Mrs. Camomile Smith's attempts to make herself out an interesting invalid is quite beside the purpose of the book, be- sides being full of exaggeration and absurdity. It is mere farce, and the book claims to be something different from farce, when Dr. Griffon under- takes to keep the various organs of the lady's body in order for a fixed annual sum; the heart, for instance, for £30, the spine £25, &c. Equally irrevelant, though more cleverly conceived, is the account of the Titus Society, instituted by Mr. Howard Spoonerley, of Eppleton- on-Ouse, for the suppression of sundry social evils and the working of sundry social benefits, to which at last the great fortune comes. By it- self this would have made a good sketch. With all its faults, More than a Million is a clever and readable tale.
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