RICHARD LE GALLIENNE, in the _Star_: 'An exceedingly sprightly and readable novel.'

A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON.

MERE STORIES.

BY MRS. W. K. CLIFFORD.

'Mrs. W. K. Clifford's "Mere Stories" is not only notable for the excellence and uniform interest of the stories it contains, but also for the novelty of its shape--that of the yellow French novel pure and simple. The innovation deserves encouragement. You do not want, at this time of day, an introduction to Mrs. Clifford's many good qualities. She has become one of those few writers of English fiction no one of whose books one can afford to leave unread.'--_Review of Reviews._

'They are neatly and incisively written, with an unfailing strain of humour running through them. Altogether, this is a volume to read, and we like its get-up--in paper covers on the French model, only neater and more substantial.'--_Daily Mail._

'In type, make-up, and size, it is exactly the volume to buy at the book-stall and slip into such convenient receptacle as you may chance to carry with you in the railway carriage. It costs you no more than a few ill.u.s.trated papers, and is more handy to bestow when you have read it.

As for the contents, they are eight slight stories, in Mrs. Clifford's best manner. Yet, simple and unpretending as they are, they contain the real novelist's touch. There is nature, drama, character, in these short histories, and, above all, that command of simple pathos which Mrs.

Clifford has more than most writers. We do not know many living writers who could have done either so well.'--_St. James's Gazette._

UNIFORM WITH 'MERE STORIES,'

THE LAST TOUCHES.

BY MRS. W. K. CLIFFORD.

'Much skill is devoted to the narration of all these stories.'--_Sat.u.r.day Review._

'Many of them surpa.s.s even "Aunt Anne" and "Mrs. Keith's Crime" in terseness and brilliant originality.'--_Morning Post._

'One reads them from beginning to end enchanted.'--_National Review._

'There is some very pretty and delicate work in them, which the literary world would be the poorer for losing.'--_Daily Telegraph._

'Indeed, in every story there are touches of wonderful cleverness, signs of clear insight, of fresh and just observation.'--_Speaker._

'Two or three of the stories reach an uncommon level of thought and expression.'--_Standard._

'But they are all good, all original, all distinctive, and we advise readers to take care not to miss them.'--_Guardian._

A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON.

THE DREAM-CHARLOTTE.

BY M. BETHAM-EDWARDS.

'Miss Betham-Edwards is on her own special ground in her new novel, which she calls "The Dream-Charlotte." Provincial France of the Revolution time she knows with a detailed knowledge few other English writers, if any, possess. It is a first-rate novel for youth, because of its irresistible, contagious youthfulness; and its wholesome enthusiasms.'--_The Sketch._

'An historical novel of a thoroughly legitimate kind, for the picture and the character are brought before us with sufficient vividness, yet mainly through the words and thoughts of the fict.i.tious heroine, and through her close sympathy with her friend.'--_Athenaeum._

'A tale of rare imaginative beauty. Needless to say, the literary charm of the book is great, and the atmosphere of the story true to its historical setting.'--_Dundee Advertiser._

'No living writer is so thoroughly at home in describing French life as Miss Edwards is, or better able to give a life-like picture of the social condition of France at the period of Charlotte Corday's daring deed.'--_Hastings Observer._

THE CURB OF HONOUR.

BY M. BETHAM-EDWARDS.

'The descriptions of scenery in the Pyrenees are very attractive, and the author has been most skilful in her delineations of the characters of the leading actors.'--_Literary World._

'The concluding chapter is a piece of masterly tragi-comedy. When I say that this scene is suggestive of Balzac, I mean a high compliment.'--_Academy._

'Miss Betham-Edwards is a popular favourite of longstanding. She loves to take her readers into some quiet corner of France, and her gift of picturesque description is such that her tales seldom fail to yield interest and recreation.'--_Times._

A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON.

AN ISLE IN THE WATER.

BY KATHARINE TYNAN (MRS. HINKSON).

AUTHOR OF 'OH, WHAT A PLAGUE IS LOVE!'

'Here, among the hosts of ladies who write with care and inelegance, comes a woman artist. "An Isle in the Water" is a collection of fifteen well-conceived and excellently-finished Irish stories, for which it would be hard to find anything to say but praise. They are all extremely short for the force of their effect, and every touch tells; they are gracefully phrased without an appearance of artifice, subtly expressed without a suspicion of affectation.'--_Sat.u.r.day Review._

'I venture to a.s.sert that in any one of its fifteen tales there is a finer rendering of the very essence of Irish life and character than in any half-dozen of the books which are responsible for the conception of the conventional Pat or Biddy which has had such a long and prosperous vogue on this side of the Channel. The book owes its momentum to its fascinating and powerful rendering of the pathos and the tragedy of the simple lives with which the writer deals. But this fascination and power are far too obvious to stand in need of celebration.'--_New Age._

'Any faults the book may have are redeemed by a page torn from the auth.o.r.ess's own heart. "Changing the Nurseries" is a chapter no woman, mother, or maid could read without a lump in her throat. The strong maternal element, which is the chief virtue of the Irish, is rife in it, and the thousand and one little trivialities that our life is made up of are admirably commented upon.'--_St. James's Budget._

OH, WHAT A PLAGUE IS LOVE!

BY KATHARINE TYNAN (MRS. HINKSON).