Sentenced by Fate. By Selwyn Eyre. 3 vols. (Tinsley.)—The title
promises an exciting story, a tragio tale of virtue struggling against pitiless destiny, or of crime vainly endeavouring to escape a just retri- bution. The drat volume made it tolerably plain that the exalting story was not to be ; and as we struggled on through a confused crowd of common-place characters and events, we felt little but a languid wonder as to how the author would justify her title. About the middle of the third volume the justification occurs. "The afternoon hours had sped on so fast, almost too fast for those two, whose paths, Sentence' by Fate to cross once, even at the very beginning, had, in strict obe- dience to the same, and in spite of the dark shadows that had fallen, met again." That is to say, the heroine meets the hero in the first volume,. struggles with poverty in the second, fancies that the hero has married another in the first half of the third, and this was all "sentenced by Fate." The author must learn that, though a reviewer's conscience makes him plod through three weary volumes, something more than a stimulating title is required for the ordinary reader. We really can say nothing in praise of the book, except that it is harmless and well- intentioned,
Previous page
