When the Century was Young : a Story Told in
Pen and Pencil. By M. M. Blake. (Jerrold and Sons.)—This is an interesting story of national events and of private fortunes, not unskilfully mixed up. There is a brave hero and a beautiful heroine; he too is handsome and she has no common courage; and both are good. The tale culminates in the great battle of Waterloo. The most striking part of this portion, indeed we may say of the whole, is the description of the streets of Brussels crowded with the wounded, of all nationalities, after the battle had been lost and wen. The young wife searching for her husband among the
almost endless ranks of these sufferers makes a striking and pathetic figure. Miss Blake must chasten her style. Her fine writing does not heighten, it rather weakens, the effect which her really good conceptions of incidents and character ought to make upon the reader. In the middle of one of the best chapters of the book, giving the scene referred to above, we are positively interrupted by such a sentence as this,—" Above the picturesquely gabled buildings the sky showed faintly reddening with the kisses of the rising sun."
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