=ERVINE, St. John G.= Born Belfast, 1883. Has published four plays, three of which have been successfully acted at the Abbey Theatre. Hopes to publish a new novel, _Changing Winds_, in the near future. ⸺ EIGHT O’CLOCK, and Other Stories. Pp. 128. (_Maunsel_). 2_s._ 6_d._ 1913. Reprinted from various periodicals. Six out of the seventeen are Irish in subject. There is the sketch of Clutie John, a queer old North of Irelander, whose profession is “fin’in’ things.” “The Well of Youth,” a fantastic and humorous story about the Well of St. Brigid in the Vale of Avoca—told in North of Ireland dialect! In “The Fool,” John O’Moyle, a little “astray in his mind,” gives an English tourist some eye-opening facts about the condition of peasant farms (Catholic and Protestant) in Donegal. “The Match” is a satire on match-making. In “Discontent” a young Antrim boy on Lurigedan tells of the hunger of the country-bred for the excitements of town life. “The Burial” is concerned with life in Ballyshannon. Clever and finished. The remainder deal with English life. ⸺ MRS. MARTIN’S MAN. Pp. 312. (_Maunsel_). 6_s._ 1915. Theme: the triumph of an injured wife over a situation that would have finally wrecked the lives of most women—her desertion by an unfaithful husband, and, still harder to face, his return after sixteen years, a worthless drunken lout, to live with her again. Mrs. Martin is the book, which is both a careful character study and a page of life-philosophy. But the minor characters are good—the Presbyterian clergyman, verbose and self-sufficient (a very unfavourable portrait), the canting and narrow-minded Henry Mahaffy, and Mrs. Martin’s Man himself. There is a somewhat drab background of lower middle-class life in Ulster (Ballyreagh (= Donaghadee) and Belfast). A very remarkable book that has had a deservedly great success. As for its moral aspect, the Author is against cant, hypocrisy, and intolerance; he is somewhat contemptuous towards religion: he is never salacious, but there is an occasional sensuousness in his treatment of a painful subject. =ESLER, Mrs. Erminda Rentoul.= Daughter of Rev. Alexander Rentoul, M.D., D.D., of Manor Cunningham, Co. Donegal. Lives in London, and contributes to CORNHILL, CHAMBERS’S, QUIVER, SUNDAY AT HOME, and many other periodicals. Author of _The Way of Transgressors_ (1890), _Youth at the Prow_, _The Awakening of Helena Thorpe_. ⸺ THE WAY THEY LOVED AT GRIMPAT: Village Idylls. (_Sampson Low_). 1893. ⸺ A MAID OF THE MANSE. Pp. 315. (_Sampson, Low_). 1895. A story of Presbyterian clerical life in Co. Donegal forty years ago. A pleasant, readable story, with a well wrought plot. There is both pathos and humour in the book, and as a picture of manners it is true to life, if somewhat idyllic. ⸺ THE WARDLAWS. (_Smith_). 3_s._ 6_d._ 1896.