The Marriage of Cecilia. By Mande Leeson. (T. ..Fieher Unwin.
6s.)—Mies Maude Leeson shows in her first novel that she has the root of the matter in her. There are certain faults of construction in the story, but the author contrives to hold her readers' attention—a feat which is much less easily learnt bi practice than that of the building tip of a plot. The weak point of the story is the reason of Cecilia's marriage. It is necessary for an author to invent a very ingenious set of circumstances to be able to persuade readers that two total strangers should arrange to contract a marriage which is intended from the outset to be a marriage in name only. The reasons given here are not sufficiently convincing ; but these premisses once granted, the rest of the story is well developed. Miss Leeson is most successful in her account ot Cecilia's early life in a red-brick suburb, under the roof of her brother and his wife. There are very few young authors who could draw so lifelike and detestable a portrait of the virtuous John Ward as is given the reader in the first chapters of the book.
Previous page
