The Adventures of Sir John Sparrow, Bart. By Harold Begbie.
(Methuen and Co. es.)—There is something of a "Tom Jones 'S character about this book. The Baronet is, indeed, wholly unlike
Fielding's hero ; the aim of the story, if it can be called a story— and here is another point of difference—is more distinctly satirical, and the whole is more or less accommodated to modern tastes. But the comparison is the best that we can think of to give in a few words some notion of -Mr. Begbie's volume. It is curiously un- equal, sometimes little better than poor farce, sometimes full of sense and even brilliant. Sir John is as inconsistent with himself as is the book which tells the story Possibly the best figure in the book is Parson Shott, but anything more unlike the clerical ideal of the day cannot be conceived.
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