A Metamorphosis. By Richard Marsh. (Methuen and Co. 6s.)—It is
difficult to conceive any possible adventure which the hero of this story does not go through in the course of its three hundred and ninety pages. The said hero, George Otway, is the com- mercial millionaire whom we are beginning to meet more and more frequently in contemporary fiction. In the present instance, however, the millionaire strips himself deliberately of his wealth and his identity and goes out to seek his fortune in the world. As the first thing George Otway does is to change clothes with a murderer, whose name is carefully stitched into his every garment, it may be understood that the hero's possibilities of adventure are promising from the beginning. The reader be quite giddy with the rush of events when shipwreck on a volcanic island, another ex- change of clothes with a convict, escape from the police while still wearing these compromising garments follow in quick succession, but he has even then only reached the outset of George Otway's ad- ventures. People who like a mad gallop of crises which leaves no time for detail will be pleased with the book, especially if they are not particular about credibility.
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