The first of Lever’s rollicking military novels. The hero is a dashing young English officer, who comes to Cork with his regiment, and there passes through what the Author calls “a mass of incongruous adventures. Such was our life in Cork, dining, drinking, riding steeplechases, pigeon-shooting, and tandem-driving.” The book abounds in humorous incidents, and is packed with good stories and anecdotes. All sorts of Irish characters are introduced. There are sketches of Catholic clerical life in a vein of burlesque. The latter part of the story takes the reader to the Continent (various parts of France and Germany), where we meet Arthur O’Leary, afterwards made the hero of another story. Mr. Baker describes the book well as “very Irish in the stagey sense, very unreal.” ⸺ CHARLES O’MALLEY. Pp. 632, close print. (N.Y.: _Putnam_). 1.00. [1841]. From electioneering, hunting, and duelling with the Galway country gentry, the scene changes to Trinity, where the hero goes in for roistering, larking, and general fast living with the wildest scamps in town. Then he gets a commission in the dragoons, and goes to the Peninsula (p. 147). There he goes through the whole campaign, and ends by viewing Waterloo from the French camp. Throughout, the narrative is enlivened by the raciest and spiciest stories. The native Irish, where they appear, are drawn in broad caricature. “Major Monsoon” was the portrait of a real personage, and so was the tomboy Miss “Baby Blake.” “Mickey Free” is the best known of Lever’s farcical Irish characters. ⸺ JACK HINTON. Pp. 402. (BOSTON: _Little, Brown_). 5.00. [1843]. Adventures of a young English officer who arrives in Ireland during the Viceroyalty of the Duke of Grafton. The hero’s Irish experiences include steeplechasing, fox-hunting, “high life” in Dublin, a glimpse of society life in the Castle, love, duelling, and murder. But Lever wrote the book to show how Irish character and Irish ways differed wholly from English, and he represents Hinton as constantly having his prejudiced English eyes opened with a vengeance. This novel contains some of Lever’s most famous characters: Corny Delaney, Hinton’s body servant; Mr. and Mrs. Paul Rooney, parvenu leaders of Dublin society; Father Tom Loftus, Lever’s idea of the jolly Irish priest; Bob Mahon, the devil-may-care impecunious Irish gentleman; most of all Tipperary Joe. “For these,” says the Author (Pref.,) “I had not to call upon imagination.” Tipperary Joe was a real personage. For the last 100 pages the scene shifts to Spain, France, and Italy. Throughout, event succeeds event at reckless speed. There are some scenes of Connaught life, and a fine description of a meeting of “The Monks of the Screw.” ⸺ TOM BURKE OF “OURS.” Pp. 660. (N.Y.: _Dutton_). [1844].