Philip Lyndon's Troubles. By Edith Owen Bourne. (S. Tinsley and
Co.)—We often hoar people say, " I hate a novel with a purpose," and yet a good many novels written with a purpose have won great popularity, and partly at least, fulfilled their writers' intentions.. It is only fair, however, to suppose that these books had much more than their good intentions to recommend them,—a Skilful plot, vivid characters, or a special charm of style. Philip Lyndon's Troubles though apparently written with an excellent intention, is unfortn- nately destitute of all these recommendations, except a certain liveli- ness in the characters. The writing is curiously juvenile, the plot is non-existent, and the whole book chaotic. Yet, as we have said, there is some life in one or two of the characters ; Tom Lyndon, a mischievous, but not ill.disposod boy, of (we suppose) fourteen or fifteen, does interest us a little ; and so does his sister Fanny, an unfor- tunate young woman who plays the part of shuttlecock between the battledores of furious passion wielded by her father and elder brother. Blanche Ainslie, too, who is the heroine, is not drawn without a sympa- thetic perception of the difficulties of a good girl pursued by a violent and slightly vicious lover ; but in that lover himself Miss Bourne has failed, as she does in every part of her book where she has gone for her inspiration beyond the atmosphere of a tolerably well-conducted English home. Wo may own at once that we feel it impossible to accept as a hero a man who, while " at college " (the college is very vague indeed), has deliberately caused the death of an acqueintanoo, whom he had already treacherously injured. A very high degree of skill in the biographer sometimes makes us tolerate a thorough rascal, as in the case of Thackeray's Barry Lyndon ; but Miss Bourne has no such skill or knowledge either of the world or of human nature, and we should advise her, if she writes any more books, to keep to those persons and scenes which an innocent girl may touch without being defiled,
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