Fortune's Football. A Historical Tale. 4 vols. By Mrs. Ogden
Meeker. (T. C. Newby.)—One would have been disposed to speak favourably of this historical novel, at least in comparison with other historical novels, if it had not been prolonged to four volumes, and thus provoked comparison with the well-known wounded snake. Four volumes is an innovation which must be sternly resisted from the first, and we rather hope that some literary peer will introduce a short Act prohibiting the practice at once. If it is not checked in its beginnings, it will grow and grow, until like the historians all novelists die leaving their labours incomplete, and a denouement will become as scarce as the black rat. The court of criticism, however, tempers justice with mercy, and as this is a first offence, or at least no previous conviction has been proved, only sentences Mrs. Ogden Meeker to be severely reprimanded, and she is hereby severely reprimanded. In fact compression would have done the book a deal of good, for its main fault is want of an ade- quate centre of interest. The hero is, we suppose, the Earl of Arundel, son of the fourth Duke of Norfolk, with whose execution the story commences ; but he is not a very heroic person, and occupies hardly a larger share of the tale than many other persons who might very well be altogether dispensed with. Queen Elizabeth, Leicester, and the other statesmen of the time are not very favourably depicted, but the conventional rendering of their characters is not much varied. Altogether it is an average story, but we must again impress on Mrs. 0. Meeker that brevity is the soul of wit.
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