Donna Quixote. By Jnstin McCarthy. 3 vols. (Chatto and Windus.)—Though
Donna Quixote is scarcely equal to "Miss Misan- thrope," it is still a good novel. The heroine is left a widow under
very romantic circumstances, and devotes herself to making people happy, a pursuit in which she attains a very doubtful success. The plot of the story is of the very slightest kind, but it is excellently told. All the characters are vigorously drawn, and even the villain, on whom most writers are satisfied with spending bat the least pos- sible pains, is a really natural and possible personage. But though
the plot goes for little, the purpose of the story is very plain, and set forth with unmistakable distinctness. Mr. McCarthy is no friend to "emancipated women." The whole of the heroine's career is a satire on them. And they are directly, though delicately, attacked in the description of the Society of which Claudia Lemuel, the Pessimist, is one of the shining lights. The description of the meeting at Claudia's chambers is excellent ; we do not know which of the fair philosophers to admire the most, unless it is the young lady who held that "man is the imperfect, or lower, or unfinished animal, and is destined to pass away altogether." As a minor criticism, we may sug- gest that Mr. Lefussis developes in a very surprising way,—he is introduced to us as half-rogue, half-lunatic, but ends by being a man of fair sense ; and that the word "fey," in Scotch dialect, does not indicate low, but unnaturally high spirits.
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