26 NOVEMBER 1864, Page 24

Famous Girls. By John Maw Darton. (Virtue Brothers and Co.)—

The title is a misnomer. The parsons whose lives are here given are not famous girls, but famous women, and not always quite that. Is the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland quite properly so described, or even Miss Laura Bridgman, the lady who could neither see, hear, speak, nor smell? Generally, however, the lives are well told and well selected. Instead of the old mediteval heroines we have ladies whose virtues and achievements are of a modern type, such as Madame Guyon, Miss Martineau, and Madame De Steel.