Unspotted from the World. By Mrs. Godfrey. (It. Bentley and
Son.)—Mrs. Godfrey has worked up into this novel the situation which Mr. Barrett Browning so pathetically describes In "Bertha in the Lane." As this situation would of itself hardly suffice, she adds some circumstances of a tragical kind to the younger sister's life. Her father hates the sight of her, because he believes her mother to have been unfaithful to him ; she loses her heart to a worthless lover, who goes very near to ruining the happiness of her married life, when she has found a really worthy husband. This younger sister's character is drawn with delicacy and discrimination. In her weakness and in her strength, she is genuinely natural. Dorothy, the self-sacrificing elder, fails sometimes to interest us, perhaps because she is preternaturally good and wise. The story of the younger girl's season in London, under the care of her grandmother, a miracle of the cosmetic art, is told with much spirit, though the picture of fashionable life is anything but flattering.
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