Angus Gray. By E. S. Maine. (Smith, Elder, and Co.)—This
is a dull novel, with some very good writing in it. The story is of a kind to which we object strongly, the kind in which human relations are un- reasonably and unnaturally strained, until the best sentiments become morbid follies, and everything in real life is distorted out of form and harmony. In this particular case, we have the love of a father for an only daughter treated after a false and exaggerated fashion, until it becomes a danger rather than a safeguard, and a misfortune instead of a supreme blessing and happiness. That Mr. Eveloigh is an absurd person, almost impossible in actual life, we are glad to believe ; and we are quite sure that if such fathers really existed, so selfish and so silly in their notions as he is made to be, their daughters would come to much less desirable conclusions than that which is reached by " Nell," when she marries the noble minded coastguardman, Angus Gray. For the latter sententious and elevated personage the reader is probably indebted to Mr. George Macdonald ; he is to be traced in " Malcolm " and other works by that author. Mr. George Macdonald is, however, one of the least imitable of writers, and a bad copy of him is a failure indeed. It is impossible not to recognise a failure of the kind in the present in- stance. Tho author is capable of much better things than this thin and ambitions story, many parts of which may be read with pleasure, apart from the incidents and the people, because they are full of original observation and excellent sense.
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