The Tame Turk. By Olive Harper. 8 vols. (Tinsley Brothers.)—
This novel reminds us in a way of" Anastasius." It is only fair to say that Ohms-sat, the hero, ie a far more respectable personage than the villainous Greek whose confessions Mr. Hope gave to the world, while we are bound at the same time to say that in literary merit the older novel is beyond comparison superior. But the Tame Turk is very fairly readable. The style indeed is not much to be praised. Indeed the English hero and there gives the impression of being a not very idio- matic translation from the French. Sometimes, too, the author speaks of things with which she is manifestly not familiar. It is a common blunder, but one which a writer dealing with Turkish matters ought to have avoided, to speak of the Sultan's " wives." The Sultan, it is well known, never marries. Students of recent Turkish history, toe, will be somewhit surprised to find Abdul Modjil spoken of as a " good Sultan." Who that can look back for the necessary number of years does not remember the chorus of congratulations which was raieed when It was announced that the "worn-out voluptuary," as Abdul Modjid was called, had past away, and that the vigorous Abdul Aziz reigned in his stead ? Abdul Aziz probably did not deserve the encomiums which were showered upon him, but there is nothing to make us reverse the ver- dict which was pronounced on his predecessor. On another matter we cannot help expressing our doubts of the writer's correctness. The hero has to ride from Omar Pasha's camp at Slunnla to Constantinople, and he does it with seven horses, which all start at once, he riding on the foremost, the rest following. Surely the seventh could not have been worth much when his turn CREDO to be ridden, even supposing he had been contentedly following (without any food, as far as we can make out, for twenty-four hours or so). But if some of the "tame ' Turk's" adventures are, to say the least, surprising, his story is certainly entertaining.
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