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"FASHIONABLE TALES."
Lord Normanby has written one of the best, if not _the best_, of this
class of works, the tendency of which is in most instances of
questionable character. But they give a tone to the reading taste of the
day, as the recent circumstance of two of them forming the first subject
of three _literary_ reviews will sufficiently attest. The work to which
we specially allude, is _Matilda, a Tale of the Day_, the noble author
of which has just produced another of the same stamp, entitled _Yes and
No_, to whose sketches and portraits we shall shortly introduce our
readers. It will be seen that his lordship is no mean artist, nor does
he belong to the novel-making tribe, whose hole-and-corner curiosity has
made us as familiar with the _Corso_ as we are with our own Bond-street.
But the following snatch from _Yes and No_ proves that these smatterers
of fashion--these clippers of reputation--are encouraged by some portion
of that class whose vanities they affect to expose:--