Lately published, In Three Volumes, post octavo, HARDNESS; OR, THE UNCLE. "This is a remarkable work. It exhibits knowledge and ability enough to set up half-a-dozen novelists. The author's knowledge of life is extensive, and easily, quietly, and effectively exhibited; his characters are conceived naturally and developed truly; nor do we remember any modern novelist, Marryat excepted, who has displayed more consistency and variety in his persons, or produced his effects with less exaggeration or effort; whilst in the nice power of painting men and women—of dashing his best characters with weaknesses, and preserving humanity in his worst; as well as in the still nicer power of suggesting the true characters of his persons to the mind, without pointing attention by his own commentary-we think he stands alone. His narrative is clear, rapid, and comprehensive; his satire pleasant and piquant; his power of reflection considerable; and though in his descriptions he sometimes accumulates images in vast quantities, yet there is no obscurity and no heaviness, even in a sentence of a couple of pages. A variety of mess scenes are introduced, which are done with the most thorough knowledge, and exhibit some of the nicest painting in the book. The vulgar military character is also hit off with great power and life-like truth."-Spectator. "The reader, when he has finished these volumes, will thank us for having directed his attention to the very able delineations of character they contain."-Metropolitan. A NOVEL BY THE AUTHOR OF "HARDNESS." IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET. 1842. 495. SOFTNESS. CHAPTER I. Ir was a raw, cold, gray, damp, foggy evening in October-such an evening as makes people wonder if there is such a thing as a sun, or what the use of it is at all events, just as the sailors who saw the horrors of the slave-trade are represented to have wondered what the use of Old Nick was, that the party on board the Royal Yacht Squadron schooner, the "Sea Squirrel," 164 tons new measurement, Sir Thomas Champion, Bart., owner, having completed their dinner with great satisfaction to themselves, proceeded to establish operations in due form against the claret. |