Mrs. Grundy's Crucifix. By Vincent Brown. (Hutchinson and Co. 6s.)—Mr.
Vincent Brown chooses as his subject the painful and difficult question of the unmarried mother. Writers on this subject are apt to lose sight of the fact that the punishment is aimed, not at the personal sin, but at the sin against the family. The family being the foundation upon which the whole structure of society is built, it must be protected. Although the punishment accorded to the woman seems sometimes unjustly severe, it is absolutely necessary for the community to protect this sacred institution by every means in its power. Mr. Vincent Brown's novel is not, and is not intended to be, pleasant reading; and he does not contribute any solution of the problem which he has chosen for his subject. Whether the heroine of the novel is worth the sacrifices which the hero makes for her may perhaps be doubted; but the average reader will be content to leave the moral problem alone, and be glad that at the end of the story an unfortunate woman should be allowed to make a fresh and more promising start in a new life.
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