Fabulous Fancies. By W. B. Maxwell. (Grant Richards. 6s.) 1 —Here
are twenty-three short stories, studies, sketches, or,,' if the author prefers the word, fancies. To us it seems that for the most part there is very little fancy about them. They are, on the contrary, grimly realistic. Of one of them, "Ugly Face," we can say that we like it much. It is thoroughly wholesome ; we feel the better for reading it. Possibly the form of this praise will make it distasteful to Mr. Maxwell. He is, we should think, far too modern to harbour any intent to edify his readers. Such an aim must be very weak and foolish in his eyes. Yet now and, then he suggests a moral,—of a sort. If you marry your cook, let it be done in time enough to turn her into a lady. This, it is true, reminds us of the moral which Jeremy Collier discovered in Congeeve. Young authors may read " Bruno, Jonas, and the Critics" with possible advantage, though it is not easy to under- stand. Does it mean, perchance, "Do not make haste to be rich," transferred to literature? But whatever a reader may do, let him not go to Fabulous Fancies with so trivial a motive as the wish to be pleased.
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