Magnum Bonnie. By Charlotte M. Yonge. 3 vols. (Macmillan.) —Miss
Yonge sometimes writes in a way that somewhat tries the patience of an over-worked reviewer. There are some books—very few, it must be owned—of which one reads every word, and regards with regret the diminishing number of pages that remain. Miss Yonge has sometimes risen to this height. Such was the "Heir of Redelyffe," and such "The Dove in the Eagle's Nest." There are other books which are readable enough, when it is permitted to skip. But in Magnum Bonum we have not found it easy to skip, nor always pleasant to read straight on. We cannot help thinking that this is beeause she has not taken pains enough. She has written up to a very high mark indeed, and can do it still ; but then, it is impos- sible to fill a shelf every two or three years with fiction, history, and divinity, and still to keep all the quality. It is a curious proof of the haste with which the book has been written, that Dr. Demetrius Obermann talks good English on p. 555, but on p. 644 discourses in this style :—" I meant nothing violent. Zat is for you English mili- tary, whose veapon is zie horsevhip." Nor, to our thinking, has the "Magnum Bonum," the scientific secret, which is somehow to be the central interest of the story, satisfactorily dealt with,—in fact, it might be removed without loss, even with advantage. For all that, we can recommend the story to our readers. As usual, Miss Yonge's characters really live. They interest us, even when their doings and sayings are of the most ordinary kind. "Mother Carey" is an ad- mirable sketch, with her rebellion against the conventions that sur- round her, especially as they are typified in her sister-in-law. Janet, a young lady of the present day, is another specially well-drawn character.
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