The Dream Numbers. By T. A. Trollope. 3 vols. (Chapman
and Hall.)—This is a great improvement on the last book of Mr. Trollope's that we saw. In that the scene was laid in Ireland ; in this he has got back to Italy, and, whether it is that he is really more at home there or that wo are less so, he certainly pleases us better. Of course he dis- plays, as usual in his Italian tales, his energetic dislike to the Roman piriesthood ; and this, though very possibly he has abundant justification for it, jars upon us. It gives a controversial tone to the writing, and this of all things is the most alien to the spirit of genuine fiction. Nevertheless, this is a good novel. Its artistic fault, perhaps, is that it is made up of two tales, of which the connection is only artificial, and not very skilfully contrived. The love story of Carlo and Regina, and the strange narra- tive of how the Widow Monatti dreamt of the numbers by which she won a terno in the lottery, are both very good in their way, but we should have preferred to have them separate. And our moral sense is shocked by the way in which the course of true love is made to ran smooth. It is but a shade better than if it had been done by the hero robbing a bank. It is a disadvantage to Mr. T. A. Trollope that we naturally compare him with a very great artist. In nothing is the contrast more evident than in the depth of the colours in which they paint their characters. Mr. Anthony Trollope never represents a villain ; hero and elsewhere in Mr. T. A. Trollope's books we have them of the very blackest dye. Even allowing for Italian plotting, Andrea Simonetti is almost too bad. Generally in the figure painting there is an exag- geration of tone which we do not see in the simple and harmonious colouring of the landscapes and interiors.
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