"The Light Behind. By Mrs. Wilfrid Ward. (John Lane. 6s.)—
This novel is saturated with Roman Catholic feeling,—but it is not a novel with a purpose, neither is it polemical. Most of the characters were born in the Roman Church, and the -heroine- dies in it. The hero, Henry Deere, is a young man who has been educated for the priesthood; but finding himself without vocation, he takes to politics and poetry instead. With brilliant wits, exceptionally good looks, and charming manners, he is greatly admired by women, and unfortunately falls in love with two ladies at once,—Lady Cheriton, the well-behaved wife of a dissolute Peer, and Lady Anne Haselton, an unworldly and almost insipidly faultless girl. The bad man of the book, the close friend and evil adviser of Lord Cheriton, is, we think, the best-drawn figure it contains. Spite is the, predominant quality of his hollow, frivolous character, which is too poor and flimsy to produce even a solid vice. His antitype Biddnlph, whose serious goodness palls upon us at times, is little more than a lay figure. Neither in plot nor character drawing is this story as remarkable as Mrs. Wilfrid Ward's previous venture in the world of fiction, but she has the power of taking her readers with her into an exceedingly pleasant atmosphere, out of which they will emerge refreshed, if in the present instance somewhat empty-handed.
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