New Books.

Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life. By GEORGE ELIOT, Author of "Adam Bede," "Romola," etc. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1872.

THE last, and perhaps the best of George Eliot's novels has been received with much praise, - as much, we think, as it deserves. Not that we fail to appreciate the great merits of the book; it shows a wonderful depth of thought and no little knowledge of human nature. The delineation of character - and noble character, too - is very distinct. The tenderness and generosity of Dorothea, and the manly unselfishness of Caleb Garth are already dear to many readers. The book has, too, a moral strength which, in these days of loose writing and looser thinking, is particularly to be remarked.

The only fault in the execution of the work is a disposition to wander aside from the main thread of the story and enlarge upon unimportant details; an error which leads us to wish that the book had been written in one volume instead of two, even at the expense of valuable writing.

It seems hardly fair to criticise the author's style of thinking, but we must do so in order to justly estimate the book. Almost everything that George Eliot says of men and women, or makes men and women say, is true, and for that reason interesting; but she is deficient in the crowning quality of the novelist, - ability to throw a dramatic interest over all the characters, and make the reader feel that he is learning the story of real men and women. We know that the characters of "Middlemarch" are natural, that they might exist, but we think of them merely as the clever creations of George Eliot, - as belonging to fiction, and not to history. Yet we can conscientiously say that the book fulfils the condition which stamps it as an original work, - it deserves to be pondered as well as read.