Jonathan Merle : a West-Country Story of the Times. By
Elisabeth Ward Bayly. (Jarrold and Sons.)—There have been many com- plaints of the three-volume novel system ; but it has the advan- tage of distributing physical weight, and of providing a well spaced-out page which is pleasantly easy to read. The somewhat bulky and closely printed tome which contains Mrs. or Miss Bayly's story is comely, but certainly not appetising in appear- ance; and this fact renders it all the more incumbent upon the critic to dwell with some emphasis on the admirable intellectual and literary qualities of the book. To tell the story of a village shoe- maker who, without any preparatory training except that which the experience of life has supplied, becomes the minister of a rural Congregational chapel, and to tell it in such a way as to make the central 3haracter at once lifelike, realisable, and wholly pleasant, is a feat of no small difficulty ; but it is performed in these pages with marked success. Jonathan Merle is not a prig, nor an imita- tion fine gentleman, nor a vulgar swaggerer who plumes himself upon his lack of the educational and social advantages he has deliberately foregone ; but a simple-minded and simple-hearted worker for God and man. The book is a chronicle of village life rather than a novel in the ordinary sense of the word; but it is rich in character and incident, and is as charming in substance as it is elevated in tone. In general character, it frequently and pleasantly reminds us of the work of Mr. George MacDonald.
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