Nettle - Stings ; or, Country Quartos. By a Yorkshire Pen. 3
vols. (Sampson Low and Co.)—The " nettle " is, we suppose, Mrs. Blu'ster, a slanderous old woman of worse than doubtful antecedents, who rules the little sea-side place of Wrinklebnrgh, and a very silly place it seems to have been. If the name is, as it seems, an ingenious modification of " Aldborough," we are inclined to think that Aldborongh has cause of complaint against " a Yorkshire Pen." Vulgarity and spite gaits beyond belief, on the part of Mrs. Blu'ster, and folly equally incredible on the part of those who follow her lead, occupy a great part of the story; the rest is taken up with certain love-stories, which are not, to our mind, very happily managed. It is mere wantonness of caprice when the author goes out of her way to kill the heroine's husband—if Geraldine is the heroine—to make room for such a very foolish person as Reginald Langley. Nettle-Stings is not as bad a novel as some that it has been our painful duty to notice, but it is not in any way pleasant to read.
Previous page
