, The Connoisseur and Other Stories. By Walter de In
ilare. (Collins. 10s. 6d. net.)—Poets' prose is always stimulating and never more so than in the case of Mr. Walter de In Mare's scrupulously worded stories. The world of his poetic imagination is a hag-ridden, dreadfully menacing one: Terror lurks in every chance encounter, and he gives the pression of believing that the heart of any human being sud- denly exposed will afford a vista not merely of a dark forest; but of one in which fearful beasts, cold winds, dread appari- tions lurk as well as beauties almost as overpoweringly. imbued with sadness and pity. Mr. de la Mare is a philosopher as well as a poet and weaves many of his conclusions about human destiny into these tales. They speak of the undertone Of the soul, of the fastidiousness of the innermost personality, of man in relation to the universe of the mind. Yet his char.s acters are plain, homely folk of the kind one meets anywhere, faced with plain, ordinary problems, attached to familiar objects. The realism of the tales_ is almost uncanny, and. effected by a great simplicity of wording, by an insistent sincerity of tone. And if. thoy. are frightening, even bewilder- ingly sad, this is the deliberate intention of the author, who has something to communicate about. his view of life that is not
• merely well expressed, but worthy of attention. He floes n9t, however, always succeed in making his characters speak quite convincingly. They are all, one feels, more sensitive , and more explicit- than is quite credible : in feet, they are Mr. de la Mare himself speaking with a score of clear voices. And for this reason The Connoisseur must be called a series of essays in' fictian form, rather than a volume of stories. Incidents re- lated are of the very slightest, and the tales are material for thought rather than sheer entertainment. In an age when: thousands of fairly exciting best sellers are published purely to distract the mind temporarily, any work so sober and so exquisite as this prose is invaluable, and deserves a permanent place on all well-stocked bookshelves. It may not be to all tastes : it is sober ; but it is also infinitely intelligent and seeks to fix a permanent if not universal attitude to human existence.
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