The Blood of the Vampire. By Florence Marryat. (Hutchin- son
and Co.)—The heroine of this most unpleasant story is the daughter of a quadroon and a Jamaican planter of a cruel and scientific turn of mind. Her grandmother having been bitten by a vampire before her birth, the unfortunate girl inherits the vampire's power, though not its inclination. She draws away unconsciously the vitality of any one whom she loves. It is a horrible idea, but happily one that few writers could invent. The characters, men and women, are mostly vulgar and most objectionable ; there are only two or three decent people in the whole book. It is cleverly written, and the author has the gift of drawing some characters—as the vulgar old Baroness—with extraordinary felicity. Nevertheless, it is a small circle who will derive satisfaction from unwholesome fiction of this type. Let us have a wholesome sensation, not this charnel-house variety with a society composed mostly of vulgar people with loose principles.
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