The Amulet. A Tale of Spanish California. (Longman.)—There are good
points in this story, though as a whole it is unsatisfactory. We
should say that its virtues were based on a study of Mr. Henry Kings- ley's novels, and that its faults proceed from the same Muse—a wish to be as original as another author while copying that other's originality. All the descriptions of the chase, the adventure with the puma, and those with the bears are spirited in the extreme. But when the author comes to human interest he is often tame and artificial, and great as may be his knowledge of Spanish California, he gives us little idea of the real character of the people. Had the book been nothing more than a collection of sketches, it would have earned much higher praise for the merits which we allow it now, but which are balanced by such defects when we consider it as a story.
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