"I cannot publish this last work of my late father without some
prefatory remarks, as, in justice to the public, as well as to
himself, I should state, that his lamented decease prevented his
concluding the second volume."

"The present volume has been for some time at press, but the
long-protracted illness of the author delayed its publication."

_The Little Savage_ opens well. The picture of a lad, who was
born on a desert island--though of English parents--and really
deserves to be called a savage, growing up with no other
companionship than that of his father's murderer, is boldly conceived
and executed with some power. The man Jackson is a thoroughly human
ruffian, who naturally detests the boy he has so terribly injured,
and bullies him brutally. Under this treatment Frank's animal
passions are inevitably aroused, and when the lightning had struck
his tyrant blind, he turns upon him with a quiet savagery that is
narrated with admirable detachment.

This original situation arrests the reader's attention and secures
his interest in Frank Henniker's development towards civilisation and
virtue. His experience of absolute solitude after Jackson's death
serves to bring out his sympathies with animals and flowers; while,
on the arrival of Mrs Reichardt, he proves himself a loyal comrade
under kind treatment.

It is much to be regretted that Marryat did not live to finish his
work.

R. B. J.