can certainly call the book admirably written, with restraint and an emotional sympathy that impressed me as the outcome probably of an intimate knowledge of the scenes and persons described. Whether her lethargy is "typical" or not, as a study _Mary England_ will hold you at least sufficiently curious to deplore its arbitrary end. * * * * * Sir HARRY JOHNSTON has written a book which I find it difficult to define. His publishers and Mr. H.G. WELLS call it a novel, but bits of a biography and an autobiography and an African explorer's account of his travels have all somehow squeezed themselves into it, and for readers whose birthdays began before the last quarter of the nineteenth century _The Gay-Dombeys_ (CHATTO AND WINDUS) will best justify itself as a _chronique scandaleuse_. To penetrate the thin disguises in which the author has dressed his notabilities and to sort the composite or hybrid personalities into their component parts should provide the initiated with congenial if not very edifying occupation. The reader who is also a DICKENS enthusiast will be, according to temperament, delighted or outraged to find that Sir HARRY JOHNSTON has made his book as it were a continuation of _Dombey and Son_. Many of his characters are either the creations of Boz or their children and he contrives to carry on the interweaving of their lives to an unbelievable extent--even when the fullest allowance has been made for the smallness of the world. _Florence Dombey_ and _Walter Gay_, as _Mr._ and _Mrs. Gay-Dombey_, actually survive well into the present book, while Sir HARRY JOHNSTON'S _Eustace Morven_, who tells us that he has reverted to the ancient spelling of his name, is the son of _Harriet Carker_ and that hazel-eyed bachelor, _Mr. Morfin_, who lived and loved in _Dombey and Son_. But save in the chapter describing _Eustace Morven's_ appearance at the annual dinner-party given by _Florence_ and _Walter_ to celebrate the re-establishment of the firm, Sir HARRY JOHNSTON'S work has not a very pronounced flavour of DICKENS. It is to be hoped that this method of writing novels will not become popular. A series of sequels to everybody by somebody else opens up an intimidating prospect, at least for the reviewer. * * * * *