The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-21 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Lady Aubrey ; or, What shall I do ? By the
author of " Every Day." 2 vols. Saunders and
Utley. •

The heroine of this work is a young and charm-
ing lady of fashion who is happily situated in her
domestic relations, and whose great wealth has
never rendered it necessary for her to restrain her
extravagant tastes. Her father is a banker, and
her husband's capital is lodged in his hands—a
sort of private partnership existing between them.
Owing to the defalcations of a confidential clerk,
however, their bright prospects are suddenly over-
clouded, and Clara, Lady Aubrey, finds that eco-
nomy and retirement must take the place of lavish
expenditure and fashionable assemblies. She is
greatly shocked at first, but being devotedly at-
tached to her husband and parents, she soon finds
a practical answer to the question of " What shall
I do P" by giving up her town establishment and
curtailing her expenses in every possible way.
They live entirely in the country with Mr. and
Mrs. Colville, Lady Aubrey's parents, and after
some time, finding further retrenchment necessary,
they move to a lonely house on the sea-coast,
which belongs to them. There they kindly assist
the sufferers from the numerous wrecks that occur,
and on one occasion, Lady Aubrey is the means of
restoring an old man, who has come from America,
and who subsequently proves to be the means of
restoring Mr. Colville and Sir Edgar Aubrey to
the wealth of whicla they had been unjustly de-
prived. Such is the main outline of the story, but
great numbers of secondary characters are introduced
—many of them in social or domestic perplexities,
which cause them to ask " What shall Ido ?" The
old story of the neglect and coldness, experienced
by those who meet with reverses of fortune, at the
hands of former associates, is frequently introduced.
The fascinating Lady Aubrey herself is no excep-
tion to the rule, since on many occasions she is
hurt and affronted by the conduct of those who were
before eager for her acquaintance, and who aee in-
capable of rightly estimating the principles which
induce Mr. Colville and Sir Edgar to make full
compensation to all who were included in their mis-
fortune. The style shows a good deal of the extra-
vagance of an inexperienced writer, and there is a
want of connection in the parts of the story which,
no doubt, springs from the same cause. The crowd
of characters introduced is too great, and the
reader becomes confused by the number of beauti-
ful, highborn, and estimable people hurriedly pre-
sented to him, and then withdrawn with the story
of their lives half told. Thus we never learn the
ultimate fate of Mr. Batson, and Maid Cholmon-
deley, though- several chapters of the first volume
are devoted to them. Still the purpose of the
book is good and sound, and the reader cannot cer-
tainly complain of lack of incident or monotony.
The elaborate pictures of wealthy mansions and
the descriptions of fashionable life and manners
will doubtless greatly add to its attractions in the
eyes of many readers.

Patriots and Filibusters. By Lawrence Oliphant,
author of " Lord Elgin's mission to China and
Japan," &c. Blackwood.

Many of our readers are probably already fami-
liar with this work, which is reprinted from the
pages of Blackwood's Magazine. The first part of
the volume is descriptive of the author's travels in
Circassia, and gives an account of the state of
affairs in Central Asia and of Russia's progress and
policy in that quarter. Mr. Oliphant considers
that if we had transferred the war from the Crimea
to the Transcaucasian provinces, and maintained
the independence of Circassia, we should have been
enabled to check the extension of the Russian
frontier along the Caspian, and have thus defeated
the long cherished designs of Russia upon Persia.
The second half of the volume transfers the reader
from the old world to the new. From the quiet
valleys of Circassia and the wild Tartars of the
Kirghis Steppes, he takes us to the sugar planta-
tions of Louisiana, and the strife and contentions
which have distracted Central America. It is
curious to compare the two scenes of action, both
suffering, in different ways and degrees, the horrors
of war and slavery. Mr. Oliphant is already well
known to the public as a writer of travels, and we
have no doubt this concise and comprehensive little
volume will find many readers.