Ivan de Biron; or, the Russian Court in the Middle
of Last Century.. By the Author of " Friends in CounciL" 3 vols. (Isbister.)—Sir A. Helps has been amusing himself, it would seem, by writing in the style of Mr. G. P. R. James. His story is all very well ; one reads it with con- siderable interest. And the history of the period has been carefully- studied, and, we should think, scrupulously followed, so that Ivan de Biron may take its place as one of the most accurate of historical novels. Still it is not quite the sort of book we look for from the author of " Realms.h," a work of real imagination and genius, whatever its defects. may have been. It is, so to speak, quite an outside kind of story. The figures are well drawn, their costumes unexceptionable, their move- ments lively and attractive, but we do not care for them, because the author does so little to let us see into their hearts. Something of the kind indeed is attempted with the character of the Empress Elizabeth, while the contest between love and pride in the Princess Marie is skilfully described. The peculiar humour for which Sir A. Helps has a well-earned reputation is scarcely to be seen. Old Kalynch, Ivan's servant, with his theory of an invariable law of alternating good and evil in the life of man, and his ingenious method of squaring facts to suit it, is almost the only representative of it. Still, though we do not find in the novel what we expected, it is but justice to say that it is an eminently readable book.
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