2 FEBRUARY 1907, Page 21

The Young Days of Admiral Quit/ism. By F. Norreys Connell.

(W. Blackwood and Sons. 6s.)—Mr. Connell is extremely ingenious in the manner in which he contrives that his hero, like Dog- berry, shall "write himself down an ass." It is seldom that an author can endure to allow the subject of an autobiographical novel to appear in an unfavourable light. But Mr. Connell is quite pitiless, and with every one of young Quilliam's adven- tures the reader will find him more intolerable. As we have had occasion to say in this column more than once lately, it is impos- sible to judge sea-stories of the year 1805 with dispassionate criticism. The intense interest of the subject makes the critic blind to any faults in the novel, and The Young Days of Admiral Qua/ism is no exception to this rule.