My Baronite has been reading _Mona Maclean, Medical Student_.
(BLACKWOOD.) "It is," he tells me, "a Novel with a purpose--no
recommendation for a novel, more especially when the purpose selected
is that of demonstrating the indispensability of women-doctors."
Happily GRAHAM TRAVERS, as the author (being evidently a woman)
calls herself, is lured from her fell design. There is a chapter or
two of talk among the girls in the dissecting-room and the chemical
laboratory, with much about the "spheno-maxillary fossa," the
"dorsalis pedis," and the general whereabouts of "Scarpa's triangle."
But these can be skipped, and the reader may get into the company of
_Mona Maclean_ when she is less erudite, and more womanly. When not
dissecting the "plantar arch," _Mona_ is a bright, fearless, clever
girl, with a breezy manner, refreshing to all admitted to her company.
The episode of her shopkeeping experience is admirably told, and
affords the author abundant and varied opportunity of exercising her
gift of drawing character. _Mona Maclean_ is, apparently, a first
effort at novel-writing. The workmanship improves up to the end of the
third volume; and Miss TRAVERS' next book will be better still.
[Illustration: Affection's Offering--from Alfred the Second to Dear
George the first.]
To Mr. J. FISHER UNWIN comes the happy thought of issuing, in
a neatly-packed box, the whole twenty volumes of the Pseudonym
Library--and a very acceptable Christmas-Box it will make. The
volumes, with their odd, oblong shape, are delightful to hold; the
type is good, and the excellence of the literary matter is remarkably
well kept up over the already long series. Mr. UNWIN promises fresh
volumes, introducing to the British public Finnish and Danish authors,
or Danish first, and the others to Finnish.
See how these Poets love one another! How touching is the dedication
of ALFRED AUSTIN'S latest volume to GEORGE MEREDITH! May both live
long and prosper, is the hearty wish of their friend,