Lady Weckkrburn's Wish. By James Grant. 3 vols. (Tinsley.)— Mr.
Grant calla his novel "a story of the Crimea." We wish the description were a little more applicable than it is. This is the sort of thing that we should think, remembering that "The Romance of War" is a very stirring and spirited tale, Mr. Grant would do well, and that he actually does well here, as far as he does it at all. Unfortunately, we hear very little about the Crimea, except in the talk of breakfast-tables and press dinners, till we get through nearly two-thirds of the book. At home these romance-writers, it seems to us, never get on very well. Art which is somewhat of the scene-painting order may answer very well for a battle-piece, but it is not the right thing for a scene of domestic life. Lady Wedderburn's wish is that her darling and eldest son may marry a eqrtain heiress. The darling, however, loves a penni- less maiden, who, in turn, is courted in a very rough and brutal fashion by the regulation villain. This penniless maiden's adventures in London are really more suited for the sort of fiction which we commonly associate with penny weekly numbers, than for that more dignified kind which three regular volumes load us to expect. How the love-making ends the reader may not unprofitably discover for himself. If he looks, not for any subtle drawing of character, but for a fairly readable story, he will not be disappointed.
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