Magdalen Wynyard ; or, the Provocations of a Pre-Rlphaelite. By
Averil Beaumont. 2 vols. (Chapman and Hall.)—We welcome a novel which keeps up throughout its length an interest which every rational reader will acknowledge without any recourse to themes forbidden or doubtful. It is a groat, and in these days a rare merit, that in Magdalen Trynyard there is not a syllable about the Seventh Commandment. Mr. Beaumont sticks to the old-fashioned plan, and tells us of the loves of two couples, what obstacles were opposed and how they were overcome, what misunderstandings arose and how they were removed. And having brought both happily to the goal of matrimony, ho makes his bow and retires. For ourselves, we are disposed to say very heartily, Plaudits. This is not indeed a novel of the artistically constructed sort. It has not an elaborately complicatedplot ; it does not aim at giving a profound study of character. It is rather of the kind which depends for its interest on the intrinsic merit of the writing, and of the sketches of individual character and of various phases of society. Magdalen Wyn- yard is the daughter and heiress of a Yorkshire squire, a dull, proud common-place, honourable man. Circumstances make her an inmate of the palace of her uncle, the Bishop of Dorminster. The dreary insi- pidity of the country life, and the more lively yet scarcely more ele- vated existence of the cathedral town, are described, both of them with admirable force. The dialogue throughout is lively and natural. When occasion demands, it is brilliant. Some of the characters, Mrs. Hilditch, for instance, the wife of a wealthy manufacturer, who is struggling into " county " society, are of first-rate merit. Altogether, ilagdalen Wyn- yard is a book to be recommended without reserve.
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