The Lovells: a Tale of the Danish War. By Mrs.
Webb Peplos. (London: Hatchards.)—This is a very prolix and otherwise very unobjectionable tale of a number of most amiable and excellent people. The English is careful and correct, but the style stiff and very old- fashioned, and there are some provoking anachronisms. The following will serve as an illustration of the style :— " Ludovic was not blind to the admiration which Edward took no pains to conceal—indeed Alfred remarked upon it to his friend, and 'very honourably consulted him as to whether it were desirable that the intimacy should be allowed to continue. 'My brother is a man of honour,' he said ; 'I know that he will never trifle with anyone's feel- ings. But he must not try to gain your sister's regard unless such a result would be sanctioned by you.'—' He is your brother, Alfred—and he appears to be actuated by the same principles and feelings that have led me to regard you as my dearest and most esteemed friend. If he wins Elena's affections I will bestow her upon him with no fears for her future happiness ; and no regret but the selfish one that I shall lose the brightest ornament and the best treasure of my home."
The evidently cultivated authoress has no talent whatever for writing a story. There is no life in her people and no interest in her plot, till we come to the events of the Danish war, when we are close to the end of the book, for Mrs. Peplos tells putt a little wee fib when she calls her book "a tale of the Danish war." It is, in fact, a mixture (as distinct from a solution) of moral and religious teaching, of the sort in which authoresses of half a century past indulged ; of Norwegian customs and of recent Danish history, in which last department we detect a careful study of Mr. John Hilary Skinner's "Tale of Danish Heroism," and indeed, we are sure Mrs. Poploe has no wish to deny the impeachment ; one anecdote she herself tolls us she culled from his book. There is a beautiful young lady who has an accident in the first chapter, and dies in the exact middle page of the book, after doing no end of good to a violent cabman and his family, and many others. There is also a backsliding ticket-of-leave man, who is kindly promised U situation by a clergyman in his friend's establishment, in hopes that it may stay his descent to a third or fourth Avernus, and make him a repentant being, in which hope the thoughtful rector is unhappily deceived ; though, further on, the convict does see the error of his ways, in Dr. Wichern's reformatory near Hamburg, of which we have an account, and immediately volunteers and risks his life in the Danish war. And we have a rich and handsome young man, all that is noble, except "a change of heart," so that he has to be im- prisoned, in charge of a remarkably stern jailer—as he also 'volun- teers—by the Prussians, in order, evidently, that he may, in his
prison, experience that " change of heart " without which he is not good enough for our heroine, the sister of the young lady who did so much good and died young. The only one we are interested in, who was killed in battle, had no one dependent upon him, fortunately, and was quite good, and quite prepared to die before he volunteered. In the story a little orphan is picked up in one of the wanderings in search of health for the young lady, and proves to be the nephew of the good nurse who is travelling with them, and the ticket-of-leave man proves to be her brother. The little nephew becomes very ex- cellent under the two young ladies' training, and a great comfort and perfect treasure in future times of trouble. The story contains 333 closely-printed pages.
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