Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/451

NOTICES. 437 family. The two men are prophets of rival creeds of business morality. Sharp may be said to repre- sent the mammon of unrighteousness, and Chatwin is a lofty-minded but practical idealist. The contest ends in a compromise due to Sharp's some- what melodramatic but none the less attractive daughter Hettie. Thorpe himself is perhaps less interesting than his mother and father, both most attractive and sympathetically drawn figures. As a study of the fortunes of this family alone, the book is well worth reading. The skilful way in which their story and that of the Sharps are welded into and subordinated to the larger theme the growth of a great city and the unobtrusive enforcing of the lesson that a city can be great and honourable only as her individual citizens aim at greatness and honour, place Mr. Parkes's work on a high artistic level. We can conscientiously recommend 'Hardware' to our readers both for their personal recreation and for a place in their libraries, and they may be interested to know that the author's novels, c The Altar of Moloch/ and 'The Money-Hunt,' are still obtainable from the publishers in the library edition, or bound in leather from Chivers & Co.