Lady Maude's Mania. By George Manville Fenn. (Frederick Warne.)—In his
new novel, Mr. Manville Fenn sets himself to be humorous rather than melodramatic, and meets with a fair amount of success. Certainly Lord Barmouth, the most henpecked
of husbands and peers, cuts a very ludicrous figure ; the devices resorted to by his daughter, Lady Mande, and her lover, Charley Melton, with the help of an intriguing French maid and hair- dresser, are more than commonly comic ; and the confounding of Melton with an Italian organ-grinder is very well managed. Barmouth is perhaps a little too prone to yield to his wife, and too ready to accept spirituous refreshment when it is offered to him ; while his son is too slangy, although perhaps a good deal should be pardoned to a young man who has to respond to such a barbarous name as "Diphoos." Being full of animal as well as ardent spirits, it is just the sort of book that ought to be converted into a farcical comedy. Unlike too many works of that class, it is absolutely devoid of what is nowadays euphemistically termed " vulgarity."
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