The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-18 00:00:00

LITE RATURE.

Country Coteries. A Novel. By Lady Chatterton.

Three vols. Hurst and Blackett.

This is just the book for the circulating libralies.
It is pleasantly written, contains many interesting
characters and amusing adventures, and is suffi-
ciently exciting to afford the general novel reader a
fair share of entertainment. The name " Country
Coteries" reveals one great aim which the authoress
of this novel has had in view in its composition.
Lady Chatterton very wisely objects to that spirit
of exclusiveness which so often prevails in a coun-
try neighbourhood, and which often renders the
inhabitants olsoine great house practically like the
&vixens of the enchanted castle in the Pantomime
—" a thousand miles from every where !" The
fair Chatelaine, whose exclusive predilec-
tions work so much mischief to herself, and
to all connected with her, carries out her determi-
nation with a spirit and perseverance worthy of a
better cause, and refuses to listen to the entreaties
of her amiable young daughter or her worldly.-
wise mamma. How this fine lady discovers at
the close of her country career that she has care-
fully avoided all those persons whose acquaintance
it would have been for her best interests to cultivate,
we will leave the readers of " Country Coteries " to
ascertain. The lesson may possibly be of service
to some inquirers, and in any case a perusal of
these momentous records will afford amusement to
many readers.

Charlie Villars at College. By G. L. Tottenham,

Trio. Coll. Two vols.

llurst and Blackett.

This is a genuine picture of college life that will
be recognised and appreciated by all true sons of
alma mater. The author is evidently a disciple of
the Pre-Raphaelite school—he does not seek
to idealise his heroes, or to render his
descriptions poetical and his scenes picturesque; his
aim has been to hold " a mirror up to nature," and
to describe men and manners as he has found them,
even if occasionally it might prove, as it does some-
times in these volumes, that neither the men nor
the manners were worth the trouble so bestowed
upon them. From the arrival of the down-train
at the Cambridge platform, on the, to him,
all important occasion, when young Charlie Villars
enters the University, one of a group of Freshmen,
until the close as his academic career every varied
phase of college life is very naturally and very
vividly described to us. We take part in boat
races, horse races, pic-nic parties, and every
species of amusement ; we make acquaintance
with under-graduates of every type and
temperament, reading men, boating men,
fast men, idle men, and men whose acquaintance is
not worth the trouble of cultivating. Charlie
Villars himself is a very delightful hero, and some
of his familiar friends become friends of the reader
also before the close of their varied adventures.
Mr. Tottenham has eminently well succeeded in the
object with which he undertook this work, which
was not to point a moral or adorn a tale, but to
afford an accurate and, consequently, au interesting
picture of actual life at Cambridge.

The Corset and the Crinoline. Ward, Lock, and
Tyler.

This is an elegant little volume for the draWing.
room table, embellished with more than fifty
capital illustrations, representing some among the
innumerable vagaries of fashion in ancient and
modern times. The various mutations of the
Corset and, the Crinoline, to say nothing of tho
Chignon, as they were and as they are, at one time
compressed into almost impossible dimensions, at
another expanding with voluminous superfluity, are
more than sufficient to bewilder all beholders. To
turn over the pages of this very entertaining little
volume, where the stately lady of ancient days—

" Iu tea-cup times of hoop and hood

And. when the patch was worn,
appears in contrast to her fair sisters, wish the
narrow skirts and sweeping trains of now-a-days,
where the bugle-bedecked beauty of the savage
squaw is depicted side by side with the exquisite
favourite of artificial life—the turning over
these pages may prove, according to the mood of
the beholder, as good as a sermon or as severe as a.
satire. As page after page reveals fashion after
fashion, we recognise how the one only identical
characteristic of one and all is its " passing away."
One and all pass away, every fashion, save one
" the old, old fashion," as the historian of little
Paul Dombey so exquisitely reminds us, " The
fashion that came in with our first garments, and
will last unchanged until our race has run its course,
and the wide firmament is rolled up like a scroll.
The old, old faelUou—Death."