Novets.—Harold Saxon. By Alan Muir. 3 vols. (Smith and Elder.)—Harold
Saxon describes itself as "a story of the Church and the World," and, indeed, the chief interest of the book, which claims attention rather as a study of character than as a tale, centres in the contrast between Saxon the elder, a Calvinist of the sternest type, and Saxon the younger, who plants himself on the broadest platform of Broad Church, and does not•find standing-room enough even there. Then, again, we have the lowest type of the ecclesiastic in John Rudd, one of those black-sheep which, however often a tolerant, not to say loose, system of Church government may whiten them, always get back to their natural colour. John Rudd is made the occasion of a very powerful representation of the evils of his Church-patronage arrangements. Then, again, should be noticed a very vigorous picture of the ecclesiastical division of Church parties in Great Axemonth, not the less instructive, perhaps, because not drawn with a very friendly hand. On the " novel" element in Harold Saxon much
pains have evidently been spent; but the result, for all the clever- ness and ingenuity which it undoubtedly possesses, is scarcely a success. Whenever the author turns to what may be called his special subject, he interests and even instructs his readers.— Mr. Caroli : an Autobiography. Edited by L. G. Seguin. 3 vols
(Sampson Low and Co.)—We include this book among "novels," because it bears the same outward shape and semblance ; but it may
very well be a genuine autobiography. A "Note by the Editor" describes it as such, and this we are quite ready either to accept as a statement of fact, or to regard as the familiar literary device which claims for fiction the semblance of truth. The semblance of truth the story certainly has. " Mr. Caroli" is the son of a Genoese merchant captain and an English mother. His boyhood coincides with the early days of Napoleon's wars. This is partly spent in Venice, partly in England. When just growing into manhood, he is captured by the Barbary corsairs, and the description of his life as a slave in Algiers is, of course, the motif of the book. This description is throughout vivid and interesting, while the personal fortunes of the hero, his efforts after freedom, and his rather unhappy love-making, attract the sympathies of the reader. It is a humiliation, perhaps a salutary humiliation, to be reminded that Europe put up with this abominable piracy and kidnapping up to a time to which the memory of men yet living can go back. England certainly took the first opportunity of destroying it, bombarding Algiers the very
next year after the conclusion of peace in 1815. Some excuse may be made for nations which were too busy cutting each others' throats to be able to act against a common enemy, but what is to be said for the United States, which paid these detestable savages black-mail ? —Lieutenant Barnabas. By Frank Barrett. 3 vols. (Bentley and Son.)—This is an entertaining story, and shows in its execution and style a considerable advance on what Mr. Barrett. has done before. But it must be said that all the personages of the little drama which the author, so to speak, enacts before our eyes, have very much the air of the characters in a genteel comedy.. The ragged " Lien- tenant " has a " stagey " look about him, while as for his squire, " Toby," with his half-simulated simplicity and timidity, we recog- nise at once the comic countryman of the boards. Surely, too, it is only the exigencies of theatrical action that can account for the very rapid friendship which springs up between the hero and "Lady Betty." But there is nothing in this criticism to affect the substantial merits of the book. It is not, indeed, a pro- found or subtle study of character, but it is a very lively and plea- santly written tale, which we do not hesitate to recommend to our readers. Four-in-Hand. By Jean Middlemass. 3 vols. (Tinsley Brothers.)—This is the name which Miss Middlemass has chosen to give to the four stories which make up the contents of these three volumes. There is no connection between them, except that they have the common subject—which, indeed, all such stories seem bound to have—of love-making. They have the merit of being sufficiently readable, and of being harmless. Perhaps the best is the last of the four, with its fitly melancholy ending. One or two in- accuracies of matter and style may be noted. An estate may have been confiscated for the share which the owner took in the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion, but King James II. was certainly not in a position to bestow it " on one of his favourites in 1690." Again, whatever a young lady's tastes and habits may be, it can hardly be said that she has "luxurious" hair.—Surrender. By Leslie Keith. 2 vols. (Sampson Low and Co.)—Miss Keith has here worked up with creditable skill incidents and characters that are familiar, possibly, we may say, a little worn. The heroine is the daughter' of an unscrupulous speculator, who has left to his family nothing but an inheritance of shame. Two of his children seem to inherit his lax principles of honour ; Joyce Daring has the keenest sense of honour. How a worthy love, which would have brought her also release from outside troubles, is offered to her and rejected, because she cannot reciprocate it, is well told. Then comes the well-known incident of a marriage by a death-bed, which, of course, turns out not to be a death-bed; and then the setting-right
of all things. How this is done the reader may well discover for him- self. He will find his trouble not unrepaid, especially by making acquaintance with Freda and Barbara Dewhurst, two sisters who earn their living by pen and pencil, and afford to Miss Keith's pen a capital subject, of which she makes very good use.
Previous page
