Passions of Straw. By Evelyn F. Heywood. (Methuen and Co.
6s.)—This book is chiefly concerned with the extraordinarily passionate nature of a family called Ponsfort, of whom the head is the Earl of Alverston. Julia, the daughter of the house, marries Melville Carlingford, a worthless and cynical man of the world with great charm of manner and £30,000 a year, and the result is of course disaster. The principal interest of the story is the character of the son of these two persons, whom it must be acknowledged that Lady Julia does her very best to spoil. That she does not succeed is chiefly owing to the influence of her sister-in-law, who gives the unfortunate Hensley some much required rests from the society of his unreasonable mother. The author is not entirely successful in carrying out the plan of the book, which is to describe the struggle between the warring
temperaments of Carlingford and his wife as exemplified both in themselves and in their son. Lady Julia herself is too exaggerated a figure to be interesting, and Carlingford is rather conventionally drawn. Still, if, as appears from the title page, it is a first novel, it is to a certain extent promising, the writer's style being on a higher level than her matter.
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