Friend Olivia. By Amelia E. Barr. (James Clarke.)—This is a
decidedly ambitions story, belonging to the order of historical fiction, and, happily, it is as readable as it is ambitious. In it a fair Quakeress, who is, of course, "friend Olivia," and Anastasia do Burg, a voluptuously beautiful and passionate woman of the world that is quite fitted to hold her own against the most attractive rivals in the Protectorate and Restoration periods, are Contrasted. It is needless to say which of the two attains happiness ; but, after all, Anastasia is the more interesting Personage. Even if one disapproves of the manner in which she gets rid of a brutal huSband whom she ought never to have married, and if her savage brother does not deserve the love she lavishes on him, it is hardly possible not to admire her for turning en her father in the way she does early in the book. Nathaniel
Kelder, who in the long-run marries Olivia, is perhaps too much of—a Nathaniel ; but the whole of the Quaker connection in the story are admirably sketched. Mrs. Barr shows here that she can represent human passion of more kinds than one at white-heat. In this respect, indeed, she is almost the equal of the author of "John Herring." Her historical costumes are all accurate. Only two faults can be found with this book,—it is rather too long, and too many characters are crowded into it.
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