The Order of the Czar. By Joseph Hatton. 3 vols.
(Hutchin- son and Co.)—The story of Anna Klosstock, a Jewish girl of Czarovna, is sufficiently tragic. The tale of her wrong and of her revenge, if it had been told without additions, would have been more than commonly effective. Nor should we have objected had Mr. Hatton chosen to add to his plot the passion of the English painter for the woman who supposes herself to be living only for vengeance, but finds that after all there is room in her heart for love. What we do object to is the intrusion of the commonplace people with whom Mr. Hatton has chosen to fill out his story,— prosperous stockbrokers, matrons and maids with a slight taste for flirting, et hoc genus omne. We know that all this fills out the " newspaper media," to use the publisher's phrase, " through which nearly all the leading novels of the day are passed" (is this true ?) ; but it is not justifiable on any principle of literary art.
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