Vida ; or, The Iron Lord of Sirktown. By S.
R. Crockett. (James Clarke and Co. Gs.)—Is it possible that Mr. Crockett is trying how far a well-established favourite can presume on tlm indulgence of the fiction-reading public ? Ho can construct a good story if he chooses to do so. Why, then, the extraordinary melodrama of the "Cruise of the Good Intent" ? A man may find the existence of a wife and daughter inconvenient, but he does not send them to sea in a ship which is to be wrecked. That has been done, we are credibly informed, to get the insurance ; but there are complications about the wife and child business which the cargo would not occasion. The matter, however, is not of any great importance from the literary point of view. This marvellous incident is described for us in the second chapter, and is finished by p. 23. But the sense of its being really preposterous did not diminish our very great enjoyment of the three hundred and seventy-six pages that followed. The characters are drawn with spirit. Mr. Crockett has a masterful way of picturing women and their ways that recalls Charles Reade, and the dialogue is as vigorous as ever.
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