A Creature of Circumstances. By Harry Lander. 3 vols. (Hurst
and Blackett.)—This seems to be a first book, and there is clever- ness in it, perhaps promise ; but if the potential promise is ever to develop into pleasing performance, Mr. Lander must choose themes very different from those which he has handled in these pages. A story dealing with a great criminal and a great crime may be made interesting, even though the interest be somewhat unhealthy ; but a record of small meannesses and blackguardisms such as we have here can never be anything but tiresomely repellent. And what does Mr. Lander mean by his title ? We understand by "a creature of circumstances," a man whose character and actions are largely determined and moulded by external forces,—by the pressure of an environment which has been made for him, not by him. But Gus Marston has made his own environment, and he is dragged to the low level which he occupies during five-sixths of the story, not by "circumstances," but by utter want of principle. To give such a title to such a story is at once an artistic and an ethical blunder.
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