30 OCTOBER 1875, Page 23

Castle Nowhere: Lake-Country Sketches. By Constance F. Woolson. (Boston U.S.,

Osgood ; London, Triibner.)—The scene is laid in the country of the great American lakes, and there is a certain novelty and strangeness about both nature and man in that region. Sometimes the story is a little spoilt by a somewhat cynical tinge. That Rosamond Ray, for instance, should marry the successor to the poor little clergy- man whose story is so pathetically told in "Peter the Parson," is an unnecessary offence to the reader. She was very likely to do so, it may be said. But we need not have been told. "St. Clair Flats" is, per- haps, the best of the stories. The island in the green wilderness of weed, which it needs a clue to travel through, and the stern figure of the enthusiast waiting Samuel," are striking pictures.