• CURRENT LITERATURE.
Beatrice Sforza ; or, the Progress of Truth. By William Brewer, M.D. Three vols. (Hurst and Blackett.)—This is a historical novel, in which the history considerably predominates over the novel. Consequently, as Dr. Brewer does not appear to possess any special faculty for historical composition, the book is scarcely so interesting as might, perhaps, be wished. The story is, in fact, of the flimsiest description. Its date is the time of Henry VIII., and its scene is principally in France, the reader being taken across the Channel in company with the Princess Mary of England, when she was on her way to be married to Louis XII. The heroine is not a very important person in the story, and we do not hear her name until the middle of the second volume. She has abso- lutely nothing to do with the second title of the work, which appears to refer to a gigantic Hussite soldier, who converts cardinals in a wonderful manner, and is, perhaps, the only approach to a character in the whole book. Altogether, Dr. Brewer's novel produces a very hazy and indistinct impression on the reader's mind.
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