A Magnificent Young Man. By John Strange Winter. (F. V.
White and Co.)—This is one of the least satizt.:ctory books that have as yet been given to the public by a writer who is obviously
doing far too much work. It is quite wholesome of course,—
equally, of course, it is full of contagious animal spirits. But it is far too long, and the leading incidents in it are grotesquely improbable. The railway accident, and the clandestine marriage between Godfrey and Margot, are absurd enough, but they are surpassed by Godfrey's concealment of the fact that as William Smith he has been convicted and punished—although it is needless to say that he is quite innocent—for theft. Nothing but an insane pride makes Godfrey torture his mother and his wife in the way that he does ; and somehow there is nothing that is fascinating in the mystery that he keeps up. Several of the characters —in particular Godfrey's mother and Margot's father—are well drawn. Godfrey is rather too much of an impeccable prig to be altogether satisfactory in his character of "magnificent young man," and Margot is too susceptible to the influences around her to make a good wife or even a good heroine.
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