ch the listless _Dangles_ of
Brighton and Margate have yet to learn, ere they can hope to arrive at a
correct estimate of human nature; but to such readers we cordially
recommend _Penelope_ as the best corrective we can prescribe for the bile
of fashionable prejudice, or the nausea arising from overstrained fiction,
modified as it is to the romance of real life.

_Penelope_ has, however, one of the failings common to fashionable novels.
Its plot is weak and meagre--but it is still simple and natural, and has
not borrowed any of those adventitious aids to which we have alluded above.
It bears throughout an air of probability, untinctured by romance, and has
the strong impress of truth and fidelity to nature. Sketchy and vivacious,
always humorous and sometimes witty; it has many scenes and portraits,
which in terseness and energy, will compare with any of its predecessors;
and occasionally there are touches of genuine sentiment which seize on the
sympathies of the reader with more than common effect. The incidents of
the narrative do not present many opportunities for these displays of the
writer's talent, and we cannot refrain from thinking that their more
frequent introduction would have increased the success of the work--that
is, if we may be allowed to judge from the specimens with which the author
has here favoured us.

But we are getting somewhat too critical, and consequently as much out of
our element as modern aeronauts, who are no sooner in the air than they
seem to think of their descent. We shall not, however, impair the pleasure
of the reader by giving him a foretaste of the whole plot of _Penelope_;
but we shall rather confine ourselves to a few portrait-specimens of
characters, whose _drawing_ will, we hope, _attract_ the general reader;
presuming, as we do, that its claims to his attention will be found to
outweigh dozens of the scandalous chronicles of high fashion. We are not
told whether the parties ate with silver or steel forks, or burned wax or
tallow; but those characters must be indeed poorly drawn which do not
enable the reader to satisfy himself about such trifles, allowing that he
thinks them worth his study.

An outline of the characters may not be unacceptable. The scene lies
principally in the villages of Neverden and Smatterton; and between their
rectors Dr. Greendale and Mr. Darnley, and their families; the Earl of
Smatterton, of Smatterton Hall; Lord Spoonbill, his son; Sir George
Aimwe