Paths of Judgment. By Anne Douglas Sedgwick. (A. Constable and
Co. 6s.)—Miss Sedgwick in her new novel gives admirable pictures of two types of men,—types which we are apt to think the invention of the end of the nineteenth century, but which doubtless flourished quite as prosperously in earlier days, though under different aliases. One of these types is the elderly affected litterateur, who to make the picture complete is by no means a literary success, and the other the brilliant, irresponsible youth who dabbles buoyantly in the arts, and whose innate vulgarity is betrayed in his deeds rather than in his manners. As the two specimens of these irritating types are respectively the father and the husband of the heroine, it may be imagined that the novel is not particularly cheerful reading ; and in the end a note of tragedy is sounded. Miss Sedgwick's books are generally more distin- guished for their character-drawing than for their plots, and Paths of Judgment is no exception. All the persons of the story are very clearly drawn, even the minor characters leaving tin. usually distinct impressions on the mind of the reader.
C URRENT LITERAT (IRE.
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