Askaros Kassis the Copt. By Edwin de Leon. (Chapman and
Hall.) —M. De Leon, who has been United States' Consul-General for Egypt, describes his book as "A Romance of Modern Egypt," and it shows every sign of careful observation and of a knowledge of the inner life of the country which it is not given to many foreigners to attain. The most important figures of the story is the Viceroy Abbas Pasha, the successor of the great Mehemet Ali, whose character as a cruel and sensual tyrant is depicted with considerable force; and Nezld Khanum, daughter of Mehemet, who seems to have been, if M. De Leon is not unjust to her, little better than an Egyptian Messalina. Askaros, the hero of the romance, Daoud-ben-Yonssouf, the Syrian, are both pictur- esque and well-coloured sketches ; Edith von Camp is a very beautiful and sufficiently interesting heroine of the orthodox Western type ; and El Wards, adopted sister of Askaros, presents us with the more passionate variety that may be expected in the East. We could have spared very easily in this romance a conventional caricature of an English old-maid, in which the author probably seeks to furnish some relief to the gloomier and more tragical aspect of his story, but which is altogether unworthy of his talent. On the whole, however, we have in Askaros 'Cassis a well arranged romance full of striking incident which does not demand too much from our belief, and of picturesque description.
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