Donna Diana. By Richard Bagot. (E. Arnold. Os.)—Mr. Bagot has
not resisted the temptation, which appears to assail every writer of modern fiction, to give a disagreeable tinge to his story. On the disagreeable qualities with which morbid minds invest religious ecstasy we may forgive Mr. Bagot for touching., for his books are always written to illustrate a certain point of view with regard to the Roman Catholic Church. But the too great minuteness of description regarding the relations of the villain of the piece and the woman who is his bad genius has no such excuse. Mr. Bagot might well have spared his readers the unpleasant sensation of finding such things in one of his books. The book is interesting in its details of Roman life, but it is rather slighter than Mr. Bagot's last two stories, and perhaps hardly attains so high a level. Donna Diana herself is, however, a good study of an Italian girl of noble family. The most care- fully drawn figure is that of the Cardinal Savelli, who, at first a weak tool in the hands of the unscrupulous Monsignor Tomei, has a latent strength of character which nerves him to the humiliating confession of his evildoings ; and by confessing he partially redeems them. The book, but for the blemishes indicated above, is worth reading, but would be more unsuitable than many works essentially immoral for placing in the hands of a young girl.
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