... . By Ivan Hodgkixsok. T Fisher Unwin.) Here is another of that interesting series-- the First Novel Library, of Mr. Fisher Unwin. It is as attractive and engaging as any of its pre ceding twenty volumes. Mr. Hodgkinson shows no strain after originality of plot, no desire after sensational moments, nor preciousness, nor prettiness of style, and he has succeeded with tenderness and distinction ...

... By Anton Tchekov. (Heinematm It would be hard to imagine any motive more expressive of the strangenesses of life in mighty Russia than that which inspires the first of these stories, The Steppe. The whole long narrative is just the account of a little boy making his first journey to a public school. His mother with ambitions towards refinement and education, and himself, in the imminence of ...

... When R. G. Came to London. R. G. Knowles discovered London, by way of Liverpool, on the 8th of June, 1891; and London discovered him, by way of the Trocadero, on the 13th. In the bill also on that momentous date were, among others, George Beauchamp and Charles Chaplin, descriptive singer and father of Charlie Chaplin of film fame. R. G.'s number went up, and he walked on. His first few ...

... THE LITERARY LOUNGER. WONDERFUL WORD PICTURES OF RUSSIA* HOW may the transition be expressed from the crudities of the evening newspaper to an afternoon with this mild, thoughtful traveller? It is like leaving the cafe for the fresh air of the dark street and a star or two overhead; it is like exchanging the once noisy brilliance of the town for that star or two always overhead, but only now ...

... THE*9 CRITIC ON THE ?7' HEARTH^ Wr ...

... THE LITERARY LOUNGER. AN AMERICAN GLIMPSE OF EUROPE AT WAR* AS it has become impossible to talk or think about anything for five consecutive minutes except war, a pleasant little book like Mr. Irwin's should be sure of its welcome. It is a sympathetic collection of impressions, experiences, and theories by an American journalist who has been foiled, like every other journalist, of doing the ...

... Forlorn Adventurers. By Agnes and Egerton Castle. Methuen A real tale of woe is the last word of this popular pair of romancers. Two young people born for each other, reared for each other, and mated in the morning of life, suddenly fly apart with a shock like some uncanny experiment in physics. Of course, the picturesque leads with the prologue among thyme and other delicate mountain herbs ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. THE FREEDOM OF THE SEAS, AT THE HAYMARKET THEATRE. WHATEVER differences of opinion there may be as to the merits of The Freedom of the Seas as a play, opinion will be unanimous, ex cept on the part of out-of-work actors, that it is excellently performed. No one cares much whether the leading actor is on the stage or not when everyone else, from bosun to skipper, from ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. TO-NIGHT'S THE NIGHT, AT THE GAIETY THEATRE. SHOULD the illustrations on this page strike the reader as having more of the audience than of the actors in them, our artist's apology must be that from the seat he adorned he was favoured with a perfect view of the box occu pants, but with a more limited vision of the stage. This modesty of actors in hiding from one admirer ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. PUSS IN BOOTS, AT DRURY LANE THEATRE. BEFORE you have been long at the Drury Lane pantomime you feel with even more certainty than when you entered the building that we are going to win this war. It would be difficult to say how the impres sion is caused, for practically no reference is made on the stage to the big subject. Is it the cheerful optimism of the part-author, ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. THE SAVING GRACE, AT THE GARRICK THEATRE. IT used to be a custom to refer to the works of Mr. Hubert Henry Davies as tenuous, but fragrant and delightful, and to say that no author was ever better served than he by his actors. Exactly the same might be said of Mr. C. Haddon Chambers's comedy The Saving Grace now being performed at the Garrick Theatre. Perhaps M r. ...

... ROUND T HE T H E A T R E S. PEN,-- Mr. Horace Annesley Vachell has done such good work that he probably knows as well as anybody that Pen will not do at all. If he did not discover the truth at rehearsals, the first performance can have left him in no doubt; but I hope for the sake of his reputation as an artist that enlightenment came earlier still, and that as he wrote he felt that ...