The early scenes (150 pp.) of Tom’s life (told throughout in the first person) take place in Ireland. Lever tells us (Pref.) that he tried to make Tom intensely Irish before launching him into French life. Tom enlists, but in consequence of a quarrel with a fatal ending has to fly the country. He goes to France, then under the First Consul, and joins the army. Military, civil, and political life at Paris is described with wonderful vividness and knowledge. These form a background to the exciting and dramatic adventures and love affairs of the hero. Then there is the Austerlitz campaign fully described; then life at Paris in 1806. Then the campaign of Jena. Finally, we have a description of the last campaign that ended with the abdication at Fontainebleau. The portrait of Napoleon is lifelike and convincing. Lever throws himself thoroughly into his French scenes. A pathetic episode is the love of Minette, the Vivandière, for Tom, and her heroic death at the Bridge of Montereau. Darby the Blast is a character of the class of Mickey Free and Tipperary Joe, yet quite distinct and original. The scene near the close where Darby is in the witness-box is a companion picture to Sam Weller in court, and is one of the best things of its kind in fiction. ⸺ ARTHUR O’LEARY. Pp. 435. (N.Y.: _Dutton_). 1.00. [1844]. Rather a collection of stories of adventure than a novel. Lever has worked into it many of his own experiences in Canada, and also at Göttingen. There is a good deal about Student life in Germany. Many stories (of the Napoleonic wars chiefly) are told by the various characters all through the book. Some contemporary critics thought this the best of Lever’s books. ⸺ ST. PATRICK’S EVE. Pp. 203. (_Chapman & Hall_). illustr. by “Phiz.” (N.Y.: _Harper_). [1845]. A short and somewhat gloomy tale of a period that Lever knew well—the pestilence of 1832. Scene: borders of Lough Corrib. The life described is that of the small farmer and the peasant struggling to make ends meet. Faction-fighting is dealt with in the opening of the tale, and the relations between landlord and agent and tenantry, at the period, are described with insight. “When I wrote it, I desired to inculcate the truth that prosperity has as many duties as adversity has sorrows.” It is far the most national of Lever’s stories, and there is a depth of feeling and of sympathy in it that would surprise those acquainted only with _Charles O’Malley_ and _Harry Lorrequer_. ⸺ THE O’DONOGHUE. Pp. 369. (_Routledge_). [1845].