and George Sand died, the post of leading
novelist has been vacant, although there has been no lack of writers of the
second or third, and especially of still lower, rank. Octave Feuillet still
produces occasionally a clever piece of workmanship; Cherbuliez at
intervals writes a novel which proves how lamentable a thing is the
possession of brilliancy alone apart from the seriousness of character, or
of some sides of character, which must exist alongside of even high
intellectual qualities in order that the man may make a lasting impression
on his time. Great gifts frittered away on meaningless trifles are as
disappointing as possible, and are the more disappointing in proportion to
the greatness of the gifts; so that the decadence of Cherbuliez--or, if
this is too severe, his lack of improvement after his brilliant
beginning--is a very melancholy thing. Zola is among the younger men, the
head of a number of enthusiasts who revel in the exact study of social
ordure, and who threaten to destroy fiction by ridding it of what makes its
life--imagination, that is--and substituting for it scientific fact.
Theuriet is an amiable but by no means a powerful writer, who so far has
contented himself with following different models without striking out any
special path of his own.

Henry Greville is a new author, who has reached by no means the highest,
yet a very respectable, place--such as would be a source of gratification
to most people. The name signed to her novels is the _nom-de-plume_ of a
lady who, as is also apparent from her work, has lived long enough in
Russia to become familiar with the people and their ways. _Les Koumiassine_
is a story of Russian life, treating of a rich family whose name gives the
title to the novel. The family is one of great wealth, and consists of the
Count Koumiassine and his wife, their two children--one a boy of nine or
ten, the other a girl half a dozen years older--and a niece of about
seventeen. The plot concerns itself with the efforts of the countess to
give her niece, whom she values much less than her daughter, a suitable
husband. The poor girl is bullied and badgered after the most approved
methods of domestic tyranny, and her high-spirited struggle against adverse
circumstances makes the book as readable as one could wish. After all, the
family is a microcosm, and furnishes frequent opportunity for the practice
of good or bad qualities; and the cleverest novel-writers have chosen just