A Russian Princess. By Tracy Turnerelli. (" Hansom Cab" Publishing
Company.)—Mr. Turnerelli, or "The Old Russian Traveller," as he evidently likes to be called, bursts upon us like a thunderclap, with an " authentic " story dating from the days of Paul I. No one knows much about Russian society in the last century, but every one knows that it compares rather favourably than otherwise with the waning days of the Roman Empire. The appalling waste of human life is peculiar to Russia, and is more Oriental than the most barbarous of Asiatic nations. The "Russian Princess" whose confession Mr. Turnerelli reveals to our eye, was a Princess of more than ordinary viciousness and unscrupulous cruelty ; a female fiend whose crimes were probably unique. The greatness of her crimes compels, indeed, a certain amount of unwilling attraction. But apart from this, we cannot regard her history as possessing more literary merit than a " penny dread- ful." "A Russian Ghost-Story" is, however, on a much higher level, and possesses interest of a less debased kind than the bloody and ferocious details put together with so little semblance to unity in the first story.
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