Not Easily Jealous. 3 vols. (Tinsley.)—This is a novel which,
though it is not positively bad, cannot be said to be in any way desirable. The plot, put very briefly—sometimes we can see what a plot really is by putting it briefly—is this. Two young ladies, daughters of a Major Brentham, fall in love with two gentlemen, Helen Brentham with a certain Reynold Murray, Emilia with one Alec Forteacue. The second affair seems to terminate prosperously. The lovers are married. But Mr. Murray, though he certainly makes love to Helen, has been for some time engaged to a singer, of ravishing beauty, Felicia St. Clare. And this pair also are married. But Felicia is false to her husband. Un- fortunately, Alec Forteseue, now become Sir Alexander, contrives by want of luck or discretion to fall under suspicion of having been the sharer of her guilt. Reynold Murray pursues him, and kills him in a scuffle. Emilia dies of a broken heart. Helen, who has after much persuasion been induced to console her wounded heart with this love of Sir Alexander's younger brother, becomes Lady Fortescue. If our
readers like this sort of thing, written with a certain cleverness and enlivened with some bright sketches of foreign life and manners, they now know where they can find it. We cannot, however, profess any regret, should our epitome of the plot prevent them from doing so.
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