A Match in the Dart. By (George Rose, M.A.) Arthur
Sketchley. 2 vols. (Tinsley Brothers.)—Hero wo have a story, in no way remark- able, of two young people who fall in love with each other, marry in haste, and repent at leisure. Its only raison d'i:tre, as far as we can perceive, is that it gives an occasion for introducing, as, indeed, almost any story might have done, a lady who would seem to be a near relative of the Mrs. Brown by whom Mr. Sketchley made his reputation. Mrs. Burton, that is tho good woman's name, is equally inconsequent and equally shrewd with her more famous prototype. We view with unmixed regret her disappearance from tho pages of the novel, and feel that after that we have nothing more to look forward to. Things are all tho worse, because the peculiar manner of speech affected by Mrs. Brown and her relatives has not a happy effect on Mr. " Arthur Sketchley's " literary style in general. Apart from Mrs. Button, this is a poor book, not improved by a false alarm of bigamy,—which is meant, we suppose, to stir up the reader's flagging attention.
Messrs. Marcus Ward and Co. have sent us a box of their usual Easter cards, and as usual, those in which flowers alone are used as symbols of the Resurrection, are greatly superior to those in which an attempt is made to delineate angels. The flowers twined round the cross are executed with very great delicacy, and a great variety of them are given in the different cards. Messrs. Marcus Ward and Co. have also, we see, produced a Boat-race card,—but, to us at least, they have sent two Oxford to one Cambridge card ; which indicates possibly a leaning to one side on the part of those publishers, though complaisance enough to supply both with symbols. We do not much admire the Boat-race cards.
Rather late in the year, The Country Pocket-Book and Diary for 1878 has been sent us, containing an elaborate shooting and fishing, cricket- ing and " athletic " diary, with room for the noting of all sporting engagements.
Among new editions, we have received from Messrs Ward and Co. Guy Mannering, the Heart of Midlothian, and Kenilworth, the latest volumes of their illustrated edition of the Wavorley Novels. From Messrs. Blackwood the first volume of Adam Bede, forming Volume IV. of the cabinet edition of the works of George Eliot. Both of these editions are well bound and clearly printed. From Messrs. Smith, Elder, and Co. we have a cheap illustrated edition of Mrs. Oliphant's Carita.
Previous page
