DRESS REHEARSAL OF EMINENT COMEDIANS, GRANDOLPH AND SARUM,
Previous to Starring Tour in Scotland and Ireland respectively.
OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.
Time and the Woman. By Richard Pryce. Not by any means a pearl of Pryce, and certainly not likely to make so great noise in the novel-reading world as did The Quiet Mrs. Fleming, by the same author. Methuen & Co. publish it.
The Baron heartily recommends Frank Barrett's novel, in three vols., entitled, Kitty's Father. A thoroughly absorbing plot, well worked out, and interesting right up to the last page. Kitty's father is a mysterious person, and she, not being a wise child, for she doesn't know him, does several foolish things, and says several wise ones. Kitty's uncle is a necessary nuisance, but a cleverly and consistently drawn character, while Kitty herself is delightfully made out of good home-spun material. But the villanous Curate is just a bit too grotesque, too Uriah-Heepish for the awfully tragic situation in which he is placed. When the imaginative author shifts the scene to Dublin, why did he not represent an Irish Cardinal-Archbishop as waiting at the stage-door to escort home the light-and-leading lady? But "for a' that and a' that," most decidedly "read it," quoth the Baron, and on he goes again.
Marion Crauford's Children of the King, published by Macmillan, is a tragic story, told in most simple and most fascinating style. It is all colour and character: the colours and the characters being those of Southern Italy.