... CONCERNING yNBV\ NOVELS^ a/ V. S ...

... . IT is rather hard upon the dramatic critics to invite them to investigate the conduct of characters, modern characters who take taxi-cabs, and are all Kings, Queens, Emperors, and sich. No doubt Mr. Besier, the author of Kings and Queens, knows all about the manners and customs of such exalted persons; but how are we to guess whether he portrays them correctly: even a study of the ...

... . By Roland Pbrtwbb. [John Murray.) There is something indescribably attractive about these nine incidents of Lord Louis' collecting career. There is something quite indescribably attractive about Lord Louis himself. Outside all the fun and thrill of his Transactions, if Mr. Pertwee had but achieved Lord Louis alone he would have produced a lovable work of art. The flavour of a blend of ...

... The Tale of Lai. By Raymond Paton (Chapman and Hall.) Tail Mr. Paton might have spelled it, for Lai is one of the Trafalgar Square lions one totally different, he declares, from all the others, and known by him as the pleasant- faced lion. He ought to know, for it appears that his chambers overlook Trafalgar Square, a square patch of fairyland placed within the hub and centre of the Universe ...

... THINGS NEW AT THE THEATRES. THE St. James's Theatre must have been rather surprised when asked to welcome Valentine, a new romantic comic opera, for I do not think the memory of living dramatic critic runs to the time when a work of this kind was presented at the theatre so long associated with Sir George Alexander. And why comedy opera?-- a description obviously bad as grammar, of a ...

... The Way Out. By Mrs. Hbnry Dudbxhy. (.1 fethuen.) Mrs. Dudeney allows herself more than one anomaly in her clever story of criminal egotism. The most remarkable is the love of the artist Buttifant for Jane-- Jane, so plebeian, so grating, so good! His boastful, crude, and precious Jane! Yes, it is the lover himself appraising Jane-- appearing Jane, dead! tn the old chambers in Gray's Inn ...

... By Rudyard Kipling. Macmillan The tact of the curate to his bishop on the subject of his breakfast egg is staler than any egg yet sampled, but it is hard to bury decently. The round world itself is so like that egg, and all that therein is-- including A Diversity of Creatures! Though, indeed, one strams after a more generous estimate than good when remembering such a story as Friendly ...

... . ALSACE, unfortunately, is not a great play, but it has been very well boomed by being banned, possesses substantial merit, and is furiously topical; the style and dignity which mark La Kommandatur are not to be found in it, but most of our public will not miss them, whilst it has plenty of broad obvious humours, and some thrilling moments. The Germans of Alsace are not so outrageously ...

... Shadows of the Past. By John Littlejohn. (Chapman a)id Hall.) It is not impossible, though unusual, to find newspaper reports of people wandering like lost sheep who have left, not their tails, but their memories behind them. A great doctor once Spoke sceptically of these cases' they had their reasons, he thought; 'twere folly to remember, and wiser to forget. Do such unfortunates lose their ...

... The Extra Day. By Algernon Blackwood. (Mactnillan,) A masterpiece of mystic speculation the one consummate master of the supernatural not since the days of Poe the streak of genius a rush, a splendour madness ol dreams strange loveliness a delicious book a dainty masterpiece. These are just a blossom or two which the Press grows riotously for Mr. Blackwood's publishers every time they ...

... The Precipice. By Gonciiarov. Hodder and Stoughton.) Goncharov was one of those nineteenth-century Russians, the preface tells us, who gathered around the editor of a great Russian review, among whom were also Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy. The Precipice is a characteristically Russian story, with a background significant of and sensitive to the subject. Of course, it is a story of ...

... THE LITERARY LOUNGER. THE RING IN JAPAN: OUR ALLIES AS WRESTLERS* Symbolism in the Ring. There is nothing picturesque about the boxing match as we know it. Britain takes its sport too seriously, is too engrossed in form and in results, to trouble about externals. Once upon a time, in the illuminated days of the Middle Ages, the Tournament was more than a mere test of knightly skill. There was ...