BOOK REVIEW.

Hammersmith: His Harvard Days. By M. S. SEVERANCE.

Boston: Houghton, Osgood, & Co.

IT is next to impossible for any great number of students to have the same impression of college life. Each individual judges by his own experience, which resembles no other; consequently an attempt to sum up all these in an imaginary college life runs a great risk of pleasing nobody.

We must all confess, however, that the author of "Hammersmith" has shown us a living Harvard, if not exactly the Harvard which each one of us knows. Times have changed since he was here; distance has added a romantic coloring to his recollections; but the portrait which he has drawn is a likeness, even if it is an ideal one.

Ever since "Tom Brown at Oxford" glided into glory under cover of the earlier Tom Brown's reputation, we have been waiting for the American Tom Brown. Many aspirants to that title have arisen, but none of them has the popular verdict recognized. Mr. Severance has struggled hard to gain it, and we must do him the justice to say that he has followed his model with the most conscientious exactness. Both the heroes row in exciting races; each of them has two loves, one in high and one in low life; both the heroines sprain their ankles and have to be carried home, and so on through the books. Both the authors are excellent when they describe college scenes, both fail when they introduce an irrelevant romantic element. The chief merit of "Tom Brown at Rugby" is that it tells exclusively of school life; the chief defect of "Tom Brown at Oxford," and one which Mr. Severance has unfortunately imitated, is that college life is made of secondary importance. Neither Mr. Hughes nor Mr. Severance is a first or even second rate novelist, - both are very successful as historians of their boyhood's experience.

In addition to the faults of his model, the author of "Hammersmith" has a few of his own. To begin with, his book is much too long; it would take Macaulay to read it through without skipping. Secondly, Hammersmith is unnaturally successful; the author has seen the necessity of giving him a few defects, but even these are such as would be likely to endear him to the reader. He is represented as being lazy about his studies, but the author has nevertheless elected him into the Phi Beta; in short, he is a favored child of nature, or rather of Mr. Severance.

Thus shortly may we dispose of the faults of the book; to speak fully of its merits would require much more space. As has already been said, it is remarkable for the vivid, and, on the whole, correct idea which it gives us of Harvard men and Harvard life. Some of the scenes are particularly well drawn, - the account of the foot-ball match, for instance, that of the boat-race, and the description of Class Day. The tone of the book is thoroughly good and manly, always excepting the love-scenes, which give little pleasure and excite still less sympathy.

Whether "Hammersmith" will obtain a fixed position as the Harvard novel, is a question which must be left to the decision of the more experienced; that it will gain great popularity, and deserved popularity, in the present, can be safely affirmed. In spite of its length, it is a pleasant book to read, and some parts of it will bear more than one reading. We recommend it to all Harvard men as a companion in their summer travels.

E. C. P.