NOVELS OF THE WEEK.*

WE have no hesitation in welcoming Forest. Folk as one of the very best and most original novels of the year, and our only regret is that we have failed to proclaim the fact sooner.

• (1.) Forest Folk. By James Prior. London : W. Heinemann. [6s20—(2.) Retaliation. By Herbert Flowerdew. London A. Constable and Co. 68.]— 134 The Waking of Christopher Ferringhant. By Beulah Marie Dix. ndon : Macipillau and Co. [68.]—(4.) Sister Carrie. By Theodore Dreiser. London : W. Heinemann. - [fa.] —(5.) Both Sides of the Veil. By Richard Marsh. London: Methuen and Co. [6s.]—(8.) Her Graces Secret. By Violet 'Tweedale. London : Hutchinson and Co. Os.]—(7.) An Uncongenial Marriage. By Cosmo Clarke. London: F. V. White and Co. [6s.1—(13.) Mee. Green. By Evelyne E. Rynd. London : John Murray. [2s. 611

I Mr. Prior has laid the scene of his story in the Mansfield district of Nottinghamshire—the forest is that of SherwOed,

already " sadly despoiled both by enclosure and illiberal waste "Athe time is just a hundred years ago, and an active

part is taken by some of the characters in the Luddite riots. But instead of a laborious and conscientious historical hovel of that phase of the industrial movement, Mr. Prior, utilising

his intimate knowledge of the district, its inhabitants, dialect, and manners, to excellent purpose, has given us, in

his picture of the mutual relations of the two house. holds at High and Low Farm, an admirable and even fascinating set of variations on the old themes of the taming

of the shrew and the regeneration of the rake. Aitlinr Skrene, the new tenant of the High Farm, playa

Petruchio to the Katharine of Nell Rideout, a splendid Amazon, but a true woman to the core in spite of her mannish exterior. Nell's uncouth dialect is perhaps a little overdone, but there are scenes in this book—notably her appearance in Court to give evidence against her brother—which any living novelist might be proud to have signed. Perhaps the greatest triumph in the book, however, is the slow but complete con. quest of the reader's sympathies by Taut Rideout, Nell's good-for-nothing brother, prodigal son and Hercules in one, who, inspired by his devout adoration of Lois Skrene, a fragile, fairy-like little damsel, struggles out of the mire and crowns his incomplete courtship with a soldier's death. The development of Tant's character is a delightful surprise, for his ameliora. tion does not destroy his intrepid humour. In the most trying

circumstances he behaves like a hero and a gentleman, and his first and last letter to his ladylove from the Peninsula is a

perfect masterpiece of discreet devotion :—

" MADAILI entreet pardon for this great libberty. We are very short of comfort in this furren land. The weather also con- tinews very bad. Thank God I am not in the civelry, else I think these roads (so they call them) would break my heart. We have fought often and never been bet. There is a young leftnent in my company very much my frend. , Others officers less frendly. I pray every night, but only (I trust) for what it behooves me to pray. I have so far been fortunat that I have not been wownded save a few trifles. Soon we shall be at it again. God is our help and hope. The wimuten of this country are not so fair as our English wimmen by much. But the goes grows here too. At oppertunity I go and look at it. War is a dredful trade to any- body not horn and bred a butcher. I have writ mot,es and less than I meant, but this is a very bad pen. They use cheefly mules, which same have sure feet but unsure tempers. Now I must con- elude or be wearysome. Your obedient servant to command and prisoner at large, A. 1tIDEOUT."

The characterisation throughout is excellent, the narrative is crowded with exciting incident—notably the episodes of the night attack on Skrene's farm, Tant's Homeric combat, his trial and subsequent adventures as Lois's prisoner, and, above all, Nell's rescue from being "swum " as a witch—and the author has, in addition to an eye for the picturesque, a quite peculiar gift for describing effects of light and colour. We sincerely trust that the not unnatural revulsion of feeling against novels of the Kailyard and dialect order may not prejudice the success of this delightful story. There is a good deal of the Kailyard in it, and a great deal, perhaps too much, of dialect. But once these factors are accepted only a very fastidious and impatient reader will remain proof to its manifold and- incontestable attractions.

There is a curious but entirely superficial coincidence between Forest Folk and _Retaliation, the new and clever novel by the author of The Realist. That is to say, in both we have a brother and sister of somewhat humble parentage in love

with a sister and brother of a more exalted social rank. But there the resemblance ends. In Mr. Prior's story both couples

illustrate the noble Greek maxim, pouumiy "Epo; atanOili whereas in Retaliation none of the four persons engaged seems to be particularly elevated or exalted by the influence of the

tender passion. The motive of the story is given in the opening scene, where the young squire kisses the farmer's daughter, and the farther's son retorts by kissing the aggressor's sister and thrashing him into.the bargain. The parties in this scrimmage are little more than children at the time, but the episode made to foreshadow their future relations with curious exacti-

tude. Dan Wilder, the young 'rustic, with a rapidity seldom encountered outside fiction, finds himself at threeeand-twentY a rising young' novelist. The young squire, an idle yogng bruigister, resumes his flirtation with Either, Dan's pretth empty-headed sister, while his own sister Winifred conceive' 4,. great admiration for the young author. Out of these -materials—given a selfish man about town, a foolish and rather "vulgar girl, and a young author intoxicated by his literary triumphs—Mr. Flowerdew develops a crisis which is none the less poignant in that Dan takes a far more serious view of Esther's humiliation than the girl herself. The point of the title lies in the opportunity which is lent Dan by the indis- cretion of Winifred to turn the tables on her brother and father and simultaneously to gratify his (Dan's) heart's desire, for he is sincerely in love with the sister of his sister's betrayer.

Flowerdew has shown considerable skill in devising awkward situations for his hero, and no less tact and delicacy in his handling of them. He is less convincing in his somewhat perfunctory sketch of Dan Wilder's rapid rise to literary distinction. Lady Derring and her son are, clever portraits of society people afflicted with "literaturitis," but the book as a whole suffers, like so many modern novels, from a dearth of characters that enlist., we do not say the affection, but at any rate the friendly interest of the reader. Even the hero himself comes perilously near forfeiting our goodwill when he yields, though only momentarily, to the temptation to sacrifice chivalry to vengeance.

It takes four hundred and fifty pages of severe trials to cure Christopher Ferringham of his habits of swearing, gambling, and drinking. In 1652 his grandfather sends him over to his daughter—the young man's aunt—who, with her husband, a stout Puritan, lives in America. The young Cavalier is a serious charge to Calderwood, who as Magistrate has frequent occa- sion to fine and punish his wife's nephew. Yet for all his brawling, pilfering, and poachings he has a good heart. To children he is ever kind and attractive, to the sick, beggars, and persecuted a firm friend; but his roving, Cavalier up-bring. lag has made him careless in discriminating between meant and tuum, and he has no compunction in telling lies at his convenience. By his pluck, good looks, and kind heart he wins the love of Calderwood's pretty sister Nan ; by his many follies he comes near losing her. At last he determines to work steadily on his uncle's farm, but, as bad luck will have it, during Nan's absence his dauntless courage leads him to the village stocks sooner than betray a poor Quaker gill to the persecution of the Puritan mob, countenanced by the Magistrate, his uncle. Pirates, mutinous sailors, and poachers galore figure in the subsequent development of The Making of Christopher Ferringham, and in the end, after much suffering and hard work, the Kestrel, as our hero is called, comes back victorious over the pirates and himself, rescuing his cousin Jack Calderwood, whose ears have been cropped, to receive an ovation from his quondam perse- cutors and the hand of his charming Nan. The narrative is rather overcrowded with incident, but the story is well told, and in spite of the strong language and frequent effusion of blood the moral is excellent. Indeed, one would have sus- pected a male author but for the name on the title-page.

Unless we are greatly mistaken, the most successful and remarkable study in Sister Carrie is a figure which was not intended to occupy the central place. This post of honour was probably intended for the heroine, Caroline Meeber, a girl of blunted moral sense, who, through hatred of poverty, lapses into the relation of mistress to a commercial traveller, is sub- sequently persuaded by a trick to elope with another lover and finally becomes a great success as a comedy actress. She reaches this last stage only to find, however, that the dazzling • position she has longed for all her life is as incapable of making her happy as any other phase of existence. But the really powerful study is the figure of Flurstwood, Carrie's second lover. The picture of the sapping of the man's whole nature by the inertia which attacks him in his weary search for work is most subtly and strongly drawn. The reader follows each weakening struggle to its inevitable defeat with something of the sickening sensation which a real spectator must have felt ; indeed, the whole situation is almost too poignant in its hopelessness. Sister Carrie, in short. is at once an engrossing and depressing book. Incidentally it gives English readers a curious insight into the rapid turns of fortune possible in America.

Mr. Marsh gives a loose rein to his imagination in his new book of short stories, Both Sides of the Veil, and thinks no more of introducing a ghost among his drainatis personae than of giving a story a hero. The most amusing of his sketches,

" George Ogden's Will," is concerned with a ghost who appears in Court as a witness in a probate case. The weird effect on Judge and counsel is described with diverting seriousness. The stories are all slight, but Mr. Marsh has sufficient literary dexterity to concoct out of them quite a " pretty dish to set before " the August holiday-maker.

If novelists are to be trusted, the ways of the English aria tocracy are becoming exceedingly mysterious. It is not so very long since Her Ladyship's Secret was commented on in these columns, but Mrs. Tweedale now " goes one better," and soars to the utmost heights of the Peerage. The rich and aristo- cratic flavour of Her Grace's Secret is exceedingly impressive to the commonplace reader whose name is not in Debrett ; but it is some consolation to him to find that the inhabitants of these exalted circles feel their golden fetters to be fetters indeed, and long for what they erroneously sup- pose to be the freedom of the middle classes. Certainly no one would ever wish to be a Duchess if she was to have as poor a time as her Grace of Glenroy, though, perhaps, the Marchioness of the book had an even more tiresome fate. In spite of its inflated sentiment, the book contrives to be almost readable.

The unfortunate hero of Mr. Cosmo Clarke's story, An Uncongenial. Marriage, draws a blank in the marriage lottery in the shape of a selfish visionary invalid with an angelic cast of countenance. However, though his conduct is fairly respect- able, he does not trouble himself much about his tiresome wife, who is but remotely connected with his rather tame adventures, culminating sensationally in a fatal duel .fought vicariously for a friend. The book is stilted in style and the characters so " wooden" that the reader can contemplate their trials with equanimity.

We are glad to encounter in Mr. Murray's pretty half- crown series a reprint of the entertaining sketches which appeared in the columns of the Outlook. "Mrs. Green is an excellent counterpart to " Mr. Miggs," and the standpoint of the shrewd, illiterate gardener's wife is maintained through- out these dialogues with no little skill and humour.