A Village Tragedy. By Margaret L. Woods. (Bentley and Son.)
—It is difficult to speak of this book in words that are suitable to its undoubted literary merits. We have never read anything more pain- ful. From beginning to end there i8 scarcely any other impression made by it ; for if there is now and then a little descriptive touch of which it is impossible not to recognise the truth, the beauty of Nature is only introduced to bring out into strong relief the hideousness of human life. An Oxfordshire farmer takes into his house an orphan niece, who has inherited from her dead father something of a finer and more sensitive nature than suits her surroundings. Her life, with its unhappy love, is the subject of this story, while the repulsive details of the "seamy side " of country life, down to the mischievous village idiot, are given with a terrible fidelity. It is as well, perhaps, that we should not be allowed to cherish dreams of a pure and peaceful Arcadia. Few of us do so, thanks to Dr. Jessopp and others, who take such pains to tell us the unwelcome truth. Perhaps we ought to be more obliged to Mrs. Woods than we can find it in our hearts to be.
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