29 SEPTEMBER 1894, Page 28

Phil Hathaway's Failures. By George Heise. 3 vols. (Henry.) —This

is a story which would have been all the better if the ukase lately issued by the circulating libraries about three-volume novels had been published before it was put into shape. We are interested in Phil Hathaway and his robust friend Testius, in the Vicar of Hilltop, in Miss Lea, and the handmaid Polly ; but we get just a little bored with them before the final adieus are made. The story has its good points,—so much we have already implied. Among them may be mentioned wholesomeness and cheerfulness, —two charactericties sadly rare in fin de sidcle fiction.