NOVELS OF THE WEEK" THE quality of " Zack's "

volume of abort stories--Life is Life —has naturally caused much to be expected of her new ven- ture, which, after running its serial course in Blackwood, now appears in book form. On. Trial is a short novel, rural in its setting and dialect—the scene is as usual laid in Devonshire— and tragical in its complexion, though the prevailing gloom is now and again shot with glints of that grim and grotesque

humour peculiar to the writer. The motive of the story is unusual. Mr. Stephen Crane has endeavoured to analyse the

complex emotions which result in the display of courage in the field of battle : " Zack " has chosen for her central figure a young soldier impelled at every crisis in his life by cowardice, physical as well as moral. Dan Pigott is a good-looking young Devonshire lad, nephew and heir of a well-to-do farmer, who purchases his discharge from the Army, after three years' service, with money provided by his sweetheart. He returns home to find that Phcebe has been dismissed from his uncle's house, where she had been employed as a servant, for theft, turned out of doors by her parents, and taken in by her uncle, an old, crippled sea-captain. Dan at once realises that it was the stolen money which bought his discharge— he had written Phcebe a whining letter on the dangers of foreign service—he knows himself to be a coward, and hates himself for the knowledge. But he makes no sign ; he is even angry with Phoabe for placing him in such an awkward posi- tion; he never offers to share the blame; never demurs to her bitter self-reproaches. Dan, in short, for all his good looks and agreeable manners, is so miserable a cur and a craven that even the gentle reader can contemplate with something approaching equanimity the Nemesis of his cowardice, especially as it exposes his devoted accomplice to continual persecution as the reward of her heroic reticence. The first step in that Nemesis is Dan's loss of Phcebe's letter, —the letter accompanying the money. This falls into the hands of a villainous ostler named Silas Trustgore, who, playing on Dan's cowardice and his sordid fear of offending his uncle, blackmails him into cheating that uncle over the sale of a horse ; Dan, charged with trickery, takes refuge in in- effectual lying, and ultimately, when his exposure is complete, perishes miserably in an attempt to murder his evil genius. The quality of poignancy, which we noted in " Zack's" earlier work, is present with redoubled force in this engross- ing tragedy. There are scenes and situations set forth with the utmost simplicity of phrase, which yet strike the reader with that directness of impact of which Heine possessed the supreme secret in verse. And yet Dan Pigott is an impossible creature. Even on home service so hysterical a coward could never have survived three years of barrack life.

Miss Fowler proved herself in The Professor's Children. a sympathetic and acute observer of the humours of child-life, and she ma intains that impression in the opening chapters of A Corner of the West. The episode of the friendship between the rising artist and the little girl whose portrait he is sum- moned from London to paint, abounds in quaint and engaging touches. Petrone], the little Puritan daughter of a frivolous mother and an easy-going squire, is a delightful personage. When she proposes to take her new friend to tea with a friend in the village, he asks : "But would she like me to come too ? "—

" Petronel looked surprised. Miss Lavinia always loves people and is glad to see them,' she explained. She even loves people with big noses. Mrs. Garland has a very big nose, but Miss Lavinia loves her.'—' I have rather a big nose, you see,' suggested George.—' Never mind,' said his little friend kindly ; 'you couldn't help it.'—' But I am afraid you do not like it P ' replied George in mournful tones. Petronel was such a dear, delicate, little instrument to play upon. I do like it,' she hastened to explain, with crimson cheeks ; but I am very glad it isn't any bigger?"

Unluckily, after the second chapter there is an interval of nine

• (1.) On Trial. By Zack. London : W. Blackwood and Sons. [6e.]—(2.) A Corner of the West. By Edith Henrietta Fowler. London : Hutchinson and Co. (6s.)—(3.} Terence. By B. B. Croker. London : Chatto and Windus. [Gs.] —(4.) Under the SJambok : a Tate of the Transvaal. By George Hansby Rus- sell. London : John Murray. [6s.]—(5.) The Strange Adventures of Israel Pendray. By Silas K. Hocking. London : F. Warne and Co. [3s. 6d.]—(6.) The Patten Experiment. By Mary E. Mann. London : T. Fisher Unwin. [68.]- (7.) Love's Depths. By Georges Ohnet. Translated by Fred. Rothwell, BA. London : Matto and Windus. [3s. 6d.]—(8.) Over the Edge. By George Vi-emyss. London : T. Fisher Unwin. [6s.)—(9.) The Bond of Black. By William Le Queux. London : F. V. White and Co. [6s.]—(10.) The Indian Bangle. By Fergus Hume. London : Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. Ds. ed.] —(11.) 71he Desire of Men. By L. T. Meade. London: Digby, Long, an 0o. On]

years. Petronel has meanwhile been utterly spoiled by her mundane mother, and reappears as a slangy, cigarette- smoking hoyden, who ultimately makes a socially brilliant but loveless match with a "little, rowdy, unwholesome- looking" Peer. Having thus dethroned her first heroine, Miss Fowler enlists the sympathies of her readers on behalf of the healthy, unsophisticated Alison Royse, an orphan girl who comes to live with her grandmother in Devonshire, and captivates the affections of Dr. Jim Cary, who has been engaged for nine years to Alison's aunt Lavinia. The doctor had proposed to Lavinia in a fit of Quixotry and wished to marry her out of hand, but Lavinia refuses to leave her mother, a terrible old tyrant, and the patriarchal courtship drags on until Lavinia's eyes are opened and she dismisses her long-suffering suitor. Unfortunately Miss Fowler has wholly failed to hold the balance of sympathy evenly between aunt and niece by her excessive insistence on the prudery and silliness of the former. Lavinia, who ought to be a pathetic figure, is merely ludicrous. In a word, the novel, though pleasant reading, never recovers from the gratuitous and un- convincing transformation of Petronel from a solemn, sweet. natured child into a vulgar, heartless flirt.

Mrs. Croker's Terence marks in one sense a new departure in fiction, being a romance of Irish tourist development. The hero, a young ex-cavalry officer of good family, having fallen on evil times, sinks his rank and finds occupation and dis- traction in driving the coach on one of the most popular tourist routes in Kerry. There he is brought in contact with, and loses his heart to, a beautiful Australian heiress of Irish extraction, who has come to spend the summer in Kerry with her half-sister and her husband, Sir Greville Fanshawe. Complications arise through the indiscreet flirta- tions of Lady Fanshawe, provoked by her unfounded jealousy of the sporting widow who goes fishing with the blameless Baronet. Lady Fanshawe actually elopes with the fascinating Mr. Bertie Lovell, but is brought back by her sister and Terence, who are in turn charged with elopement ! How- ever, in the end everything is happily cleared up, and the fascinating Australian bestows her hand and her millions on the handsome coach-driver, opportunely endowed by the death of his grandmother with an estate worth three thousand a year. The story is told with a full measure of Mrs. Croker's vivacity and humour, and the minor characters are carefully drawn. As a mere matter of accuracy in detail, we demur to Mrs. Croker's habit of putting " thon " into the month of a Kerry peasant.

In opportuneness of publication Under the Sjambok leaves nothing to be desired. We wish we could say as much for the quality of the plot or the dispassionate impartiality of the narrator. The story, which concerns the rescue of an orphan English heiress from the hands of a gang of conspir- ators in the Transvaal, is the merest peg whereon to hang a fierce indictment of the Boers. In order to get Lucy Hanton into the clutches of the Boers, the author is obliged to make heavy drafts on the reader's stock of credulity in the preliminary chapter. The conduct of Lucy's father is little short of incompre hensible, and the suspicious conduct of the venal doctor, who afterwards emerges in South Africa as a full-fledged villain of melodrama, is most clumsily contrived. Once, however, the rescuer crosses the Vaal, the narrative develops considerable sensational interest from the rapid succession of perilous incidents in which the hero is involved. The local colouring is picturesque, and the author shows fami- liarity with the scenery, sport, and native tribes. Unfortunately the date of its publication must naturally concentrate the attention of the readers of Under the Sjambok on the author's picture of the Boers, and the uniform animosity by which that picture is inspired can only inflame partisan feeling instead of carrying conviction. The Boers are not loveable persons ; but they are not monsters, teste Mr. Rider Haggard, who assuredly cannot be accused of any lack of patriotism. The brutality of their treatment of the natives cannot be denied, but the author's attitude is not altogether consistent on this point, for while the hero interferes with his revolver to prevent the thrashing of one native, he acquiesces without serious protest when the chief villain of the plot rains "blow after blow" on the Bushman who had carried out his orders.

The Strange Adventures of Israel Pendray sets forth, in the form of an autobiography, the conversion of a young Cornish-

man about the middle of the last century, who comes into contact with Wesley, and turns wandering preacher. In this capacity he excites the antagonism of smugglers and wreckers, is fre- quently assaulted, and on one occasion kidnapped and buried alive in a cave. In another chapter we find him over- coming the hostility of a squire by the ordeal of a wrestling match. Further on we find him assisting the said squire, now his bosom friend, in a trick to obtain from his ladylove's

father—a perfect specimen of the iratus Chremes—the know-

ledge of her whereabouts, and taking part in the subsequent elopement. Later on he is buried alive a second time rather than disclose the whereabouts of certain stolen deeds to a gang of ruffians, but escapes by a prodigious feat of agility—be is a great jumper as well as wrestler—and on restoring the deeds to their rightful owners makes the acquaintance of the beautiful girl who is destined to console him for the fickleness of his cousin Betty. Israel, in fact, is a highly muscular Christian, who rivals the hero of Adelphi melodrama in his genius for extricating himself from hopeless difficulties or overcoming crushing odds. Even witches yield to his influence and become respectable members of society. The book is a curious amalgam of sensationalism, sentiment, and religion, the style is simplicity itself, and everything comes right in the end.

Really the savagery with which Mr. Hocking is treated by some critics—e.g., in this month's Blackwood—because he has

sold more than a million copies of his works seems to us rather absurd. Would the world really be so much better or happier or more amusing if every Board-school pupil preferred George Meredith to Silas K. Hocking, or Walter Pater to Sherlock Holmes ?

The Patten Experiment is a veritable oasis of delicious greenery in the weary desert of novels with a purpose, detective novels, and novels of adventure. It is a really amusing little book, describing how a family of young people repair to a labourer's cottage, and honestly try the experi- ment of living on a labourer's wages. As the most capable of the two women is a girl of about sixteen, who knows no more of providing for the wants of a household than the cat, the experiment is doomed to failure. Their stock of money is very small, and is almost all wasted in the first two days, but the struggles of the young people are vastly entertaining. One slight blot on the picture is found in the portraits of the locum tenens of the parish, his wife, and his son, which are executed somewhat in the coarse lines of caricature. This blemish, however, may be easily overlooked in a story which radiates with a sunny humour rarely encountered in modern fiction. The scenes are arranged and the characters marshalled so dramatically, that we cannot help feeling that the story might be easily turned into an extremely effective Light Comedy.

Love's Depths is quite an interesting study of a French cure, the chief feminine role being filled by the usual wicked married woman, who in early life jilted the cur4 to marry a rich man. The catastrophe occurs through Florence Lefrancois (the heroine) choosing for her lover Bernard Letournenr, the great friend of the "Vicar Daniel," and being found with him in compromising circumstances by her husband, whom Bernard kills in self-defence. The interest of the story undoubtedly evaporates a little in translation, though Mr. Rothwell has given a workmanlike version of the original, but the book will doubtless afford pleasure to those who like French novels, but cannot read French.

Over the Edge is a " society " novel, but a clever turn is given to the plot by the temptation to which a soi-disant cynical exquisite, Bertie Fergus by name, is exposed. That temptation is to make love to the girl whom his friend wishes to marry, the girl herself being in love with Fergus. Rhona does all in her power to make Bertie declare his love and the curtain falls on her last vain effort, the reader being left under the impression that she is going, after all, to marry the unfortunate friend. Mr. Wemyss is occasionally brutal in his descriptions of the worship of Mammon, but he is seldom dull and often really amusing.

The Bond of Black, Mr. Le Queux's novel of "Satanism," by no means fulfils the lurid announcement of the author in his preface, the most awfal of the rites of the modern Devil-worshippers being the sacrifice of a black cat, a very reprehensible but not exactly diabolical act. Their other habits are nasty and blasphemous, but only childishly blasphemous. In short, the imagination of the author has not realised the exigencies of his preface. For the rest, and leaving sensational incidents apart, the story is fairly well constructed and amusing.

Mr. Fergus Hume brings us back in The Indian Bangle to the old, old game of murder, mystery, and detection. The story, which has an ingenious plot, is not at all bad reading of the lcole Fortune du Boisgobey, and it is a relief that we are spared the presence of an obtrusive detective.

The Desire of Men is a readable rather than realistic specimen of the pseudo-medical school of romance, hypnotism and the transfusion of the vital principle forming its leading motives. It lacks, however, the grim circumstantiality of Mr. Wells, the only English novelist who has succeeded in giving a really imaginative twist to the actualities of physiology.