to require peculiarly delicate handling.  Had it been handled in a way that combined a really high literary standard with more stirring qualities?  The question requires no answer now, for the triumph which the publisher at once foretold on reading the manuscript has been more than attained, and “The House of Merrilees” is indisputably the novel of the season.  It has at the same time demonstrated to the publishing trade that a sensational story does not labour under any disadvantage by the abduction of literary style.

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In a wholly different vein are “The Discipline of Christine” and “The Unequal Yoke,” by Mrs. Barre Goldie and Mrs. H.H.  Penrose respectively.  In the former the ways and moods of childhood are depicted in original and inimitable fashion, which makes it safe to predict that the author will go far beyond her first effort as a novelist.  In “The Unequal Yoke” Mrs. Penrose has taken for her theme the love story of a clergyman whose benefice is an Irish coast town, and in whose flock prominence is attained by narrow zeal rather than by amiability.  He is really a good man, and is lucky enough, or the reverse, to win the hand of a delightful young lady whose charms, however, do not command the unanimous approval of the parishioners.  The possession of high musical attainments makes her temperament all the more interesting, and accounts for the presence in so remote a district of her German friend whose acute sense of the ridiculous leads to such untoward results.  It is hard to say whether the author’s talents are best evinced by her true pathos or by the delicate touches of humour which pervade the book.  Another commendable feature of the novel is an alert skill in construction which stamps it as a thoroughly artistic production.

~_Ready May 2_.~

The Soul of London. FORD MADOX HUEFFER.  Author of “The Life of Madox Brown,” “The Face of the Night,” &c.  Imperial 16mo, 5_s._ nett.

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~_Ready May 9_.~

More Cricket Songs. NORMAN GALE.  Imperial 16mo, 2_s._ nett.

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~_New Edition.  Now Ready_.~

Spring Blossoms and Summer Fruit. JOHN BYLES.  Cloth, Crown 8vo, 1_s._ 6_d._ nett.

These “Sunday Morning Talks to Children” are full of charm and suggestive thought.

“We can hardly praise too highly the beauty and exquisite simplicity of these talks.”—­Literary World.

London:  ALSTON RIVERS, 13, Arundel Street.

Mr. Reginald Turner has already achieved such distinction as an author of superior fiction (witness the success of his “Comedy of Progress” and “Cynthia’s Damages,”) that a cordial reception was assured for his latest book “Peace on Earth.”  It is a pathetic story that he has to tell; of the sorrows of the outcast amid poverty, and the rage against law and government provoked thereby; of the less obvious, but equally poignant, griefs which smoulder beneath the surface of “comfortable circumstances.”  The plot is, in short, one that in the hands of any other than a thorough man of the world, would fail hopelessly, which makes Mr. Turner’s complete and undoubted success all the more meritorious.