Solia TALES.—Through To - Day. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co.) —That this
is a clever, well-written book, soon becomes evident to the reader, who will not find, we imagine, any temptation to skip. But when he has reached the end, he will probably be at some loss to know what he has been reading about. Some subtle characterisation, some passages showing no little insight into thought and feeling, some graphic sketches of Nature, and description not less graphic of life, he will remember; but he will miss the unity of design that alone makes a deep and lasting impression. Rachel Deane, who is really Rachel Irving, is an orphan who does not know her parentage. She passes through life with many interesting experiences, chief among them being her relations with a certain Mr. Edgar, always a somewhat doubt- ful personage, and showing more and more, as time proceeds, that he is, to use plain language, a "humbug." If the heroine could have definitely so described the man to herself, and so put bins away out of her life, it would have been to her happiness. Her difficulty in doing this, is one of the best studies of the book. Indeed, if this part of the story had been more definitely worked out, and not obscured by digressions, often excellent in them- selves, but still digressions, Through To-Day would, we venture to think, have been a greater success than it is. We imagine that it is a first book. If so, it shows much promise. The author has something to say, and knows how to say it.— Pretty Michal. A Free Translation of Maurice Jokai's Romance, "A Sz6p Mikh111." By R. Nisbet Bain. (Chapman and Hall.)— Does a "free translation" mean that the orginal has been softened down to meet the less pronounced tastes and less sturdy appetites of English readers ? We have an idea that is the case; but the lover of horrors need not fear that he will be disappointed in Pretty Michel. That it is clever, and often humorous, with a certain flavour of Rabelais ; that it is original, and, in the force of its imaginings, far beyond what English purveyors of this kind of food provide for their customers, may be conceded. The horrible figure of the old executioner ; the still more horrible figure of his son ; the robber who chews hellebore, till by a single bite he can inflict a mortal wound ; the description of the death by the wheel ; the revels of the bandits in their cave,—these, and ether like things, will strike with the envy of the unapproachable not a few writers who feast their public with blood. To us, this kind of thing is wholly distasteful. "Lust hard by hate is the motto which might, had the translator been inclined to give a candid description of his original, been put on the title-page. The book, in short, revolts us, not the less because we cannot see any glimmer of a moral sense in it.— The Letter of the Law. By Sir H. Maxwell, M.P. (Henry and Co.)—Here we have, not for the first time, the contrivance of a mock-marriage which, as being performed in Scotland, turns out to be a serious reality. The heroine is in a great perplexity, which she solves by voluntarily accepting the doubtful husband. He turns out badly, and we have some very disagreeable scenes in which his brutality is described, and some others, not more pleasing, which picture to us the man to whom the wife's heart is really given. However, for once the Leaguers do a useful piece of work. The husband—an Irish landlord, we should have said— is killed, and Clare Gray, who tells her own story, is free. The story is passable, but why it should be included in a "Series of Wit and Humour," we cannot imagine.— One Woman's Way, by Edmund Pendleton (Appleton, New York), is a somewhat tedious story, which is most readable when the author is digressing. That fiercely combative divine, Dr. Smith, for instance, who might have been dropped out of the story without interfering with the plot, entertains us more than the hero and heroine. A melancholy ending completes our dissatisfaction with a tale which yet is not without merit.—Margery of Quether, and other Stories, by S. Baring-Gould (Methuen and Co.), are, as one might expect, full of ability; still, we prefer the author in his larger work, where he has more space to work out his ideas. "Major Cornelius" is a striking little picture, and perhaps the best of the five. "Wanted, a Reader," is distinctly farcical, and we should be inclined to rank it lowest.—Adventures of a Fair Rebel. By Matt. Crim. (Chatto and Windus.)—We have here some vivid pictures of life in the Southern States during the crisis of the American Civil War. The question between North and South is complicated in the case of the heroine by her hus- band taking the side opposed to that to which all the preposses- sions of her life inclined her. This is a decidedly effective story. —Jonquille, translated from the French of T. Combo by Beatrix L. Tollemache (Percival), is a picturesque story, introducing its readers to scenes which are interesting by their novelty, and which are skilfully arranged. The smuggling on the Swiss and French frontiers furnishes a subject.
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