CURRENT LITERATURE,
GIFT-BOOKS.
The Fiddler of Lagoa (Hatchards) is a good example of the well- known style of the author of "Mademoiselle Mori," although it errs in being far too long. Gods, the central figure, hero, and martyr of it, is well drawn. He is disliked for racial, personal, and professional reasons by very many people in the town of Logan, the Town 0011110il of which pays him to act as piper, while his heart is really in his violin. Notably does he come to be disliked by Nicholas Nike, the town organist, and by "stately Herr Albrecht van der Gileyn, who every Sunday and great festival, sent showers of notes, now deep and solemn, now rapid and clear, far and wide from the forty bells which hung in the church tower." Ultimately, poor Coda's powers as a musician, which are of a quality approaching to genius, are recognised ; but this recognition brings him more misery. At last he gets into difficulties throngh the Napoleonic war which was then raging, and dies, perhaps of heart.disease, in the Marienkirohe, whither he had fled on being accused, while perfectly innocent, of causing the death of a French soldier. His work is, however, carried to a successful issue by his pupil, Felix van der Gheyn, a distant relative of Albrecht, and destined at first to be the latter's successor as bellman in Logan. The pretty love-affair of Felix and Glide's step-daughter, Liesl, which has more of musics than of sentiment in it, comes after the tragedy of Coda's life, like the sunshine after the rain. The Fiddler of Lugau is a trifle too professional ; but it is a very artistic, story, and in all respects a wholesome one.
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