Neighbours and Friends. 3 vols. By the Hon. Mrs. Henry
Wayland Chetwynde. (Tinsley.)—We hope that Mrs. Chotwynde does not set much value upon her plot, which seems to as about as weak and wildly Improbable an affair as we have often met with. Early in the first volume we moot with a young gentleman whom we detect at once to be a villain of the very worst kind. Mrs. Chetwyndo evidently does not hold with some recent moralist a in thinking that revenge is a passion extinct in civilized life. Her villain vows revenge against two young ladies who are very brusque in manner to him, and goes on through three volumes striving, by what appear most extravagant means, to fulfil his vow. Ono of his stratagems will suffi3o as a specimen. Ho personates a mad doctor, escapes detection from one of the very young ladies with whom he has such a deadly feud, a girl who is described as having such a detestation of him as could not, we should think, fail to sharpen her wits to the utmost and finally carries off with him the lunatic brother. Bat it is only fair to say that the tale is quite readable, notwithstanding all the absurdities of the plot. The dialogue is very sprightly and pleasant. Ono young lady, Cecilia by name, charms us especially; indeed, the writer herself falls so much in love with her, that she changes her from a clover, rather heartless girl, into a most admirable woman. Such a nice creature, it is clear, ought to have a heart given her, if she has not one to begin with, and we aro not disposed to cavil.
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