The Burthen of Reuben. By Mrs. Randolph. 8 vols. (Hurst
and Blackett.)—Most travellers feel a certain discouragement when they see at once the whole of the journey that lies before them. The long straight roads in Southern France, with a dimly seen goal in the far distance, are somewhat wearisome. Some- thing of the same kind may be said of the novel before us, other-
wise sufficiently clever and well written. We soon find out that the Burthen of Reuben is instability of purpose. Harold Rely is unstable at the beginning of volume one, and we fool sure that he will be, as indeed we find him to be, unstable at the end of volume three. This, doubtless, is true to nature, and indeed it is a frequent criticism that novelists work changes in their charm:tors which are not at all true, to nature. But it certainly detracts from the interest of the story. When the fate that hangs over the dramatis personce is not the doom, grand though terrible, of the Greek tragedy, but the petty weakness of some very common-place man, we feel annoyed rather than impressed. If the reader does not too strongly object to this characteristic, and if he is willing to make his way through about a thousand pages in which love-making is by far the most frequent ingredient, he will find some amusement, and possibly some benefit, from the Burthen of Reuben.
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