Peccavi ; or, Geoffrey Singleton's Mistake. 3 vols. By Captain
George Griffiths. (Newby.) —The task of supplying these columns at all events sharpens one critical faculty, that which discerns whether or no a book is readable,—the one, probably, which is more practically useful to our readers than any other. When, therefore, we find ourselves getting through some thirty or more pages without having to repress a tend- ency to "skip," we are inclined to think well of a book. Peccavi justifies this good opinion. Throughout it is easy to read. Captain Griffiths does not aim at anything very great ; a very complicated plot, very startling incidents, or a subtle study of character. But he writes a good story in correct, easy English ; does not violate probabilities, though it is a startling way of getting rid of a woman who is very much in the way, to send her over Niagara ; and sketches the manners and outside life of men with fidelity and skill. The story is one of military life; the ordinary scenes of a garrison town are given with some graphic force and not without humour. When the writer gets to Canada, he has the advantage of a subject with something of novelty about it, and makes a good use of it. Geoffrey makes a " mistake " in marrying a fine lady,—possibly she is a little too heartless and he too fickle and foolish for nature—and fortune gives him an opportunity of recovering from it, far better, we must say, than he deserves. The best sketch in the book is the old General, who is in command of a district, and delights to fly about it, making "inspections" at all sorts of un- expected and unseasonable times, and flustering lazy and incompetent officers. Altogether, we may say, the more decidedly when we remember that this is the holiday time of year, that the novel is worth reading.
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