A Maid of the West. By Mrs. Grange. (Hurst and
Blacked.) —Assuming that fictitious cha -acthrs may be defined as deriving their origin from one or other of three sources—first, the author's own imagination ; second, conventional types found in other novels ; third, real life—then the personages in A Maid of the West are to be classed in the second division. The book's period is nearly a century ago, and the subject-matter is the love- trouble of a young lady and a gallant naval officer whose engage- ment is broken off through the treachery of a female friend who wants to marry him herself. Whether or not the story would have thrilled the bosoms of our grandmothers in their girlhood, we cannot say ; but we doubt its having that effect on the maidens of the present unsusceptible generation.
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