13 OCTOBER 1888, Page 45

Pearl Mutton's Love. By J. G. Holmes. 3 vols. (Wyman

and Sons.)—When in the first chapter of a novel we find a young gentleman of rank mentioned alternately as Lord Stutton and Lord Maurice Stutton, we know we have to deal with a writer who, whatever his merits, has the defect of gross ignorance, and we do not entertain great expectations. The reader's best plan is, how- ever, to entertain no expectations at all, for Pearl Mutton's Love will certainly fail to realise them, being very poor stuff from first to last. We see from his title-page that the author has pub- lished some poems. We hope they are better than his novel