Park Lane. By Percy White. (Constable and Co. 6s.)—There is
a plaintive note in Mr. Percy White's latest novel to which the reader is quite unaccustomed. The story opens with an unsuc- cessful love affair on the part of its narrator, Andrew Bonfield, who, may be said to be the real hero of the novel, as he is the only person who interests the reader. After the love affair, how- ever, he looks at life through the eyes of a spectator, and the story meanders on through two generations. That is to say, the love interest transfers itself to the son of Lady Oxley, the woman originally loved by Andrew, and the daughter of John Tully-Drew, his brother-in-law. But the love interest is to a certain extent subservient to the financial interest of the book, and here matters resolve themselves into a battle between Lord Oxley and John Tully-Drew, the financier. Andrew Banfield manoeuvres a love affair a in Montague and Capulet between the young people, and in the end the hatchet has to be buried in consequence. The characters in the book are well drawn, the brilliant Lady. Oxley and the honest but vindictive Mrs. Tully- Drew being in particular finely contrasted. But as a whole the interest is a little tepid. Perhaps this may be because the book is too much drawn out for a story of rather slight texture. When a novel is to cover a period of at least five-and-twenty years it needs to have a solid and carefully worked foundation if the interest is not to evaporate half-way through.
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