THE CASE OF BEVAN YORKE. By W. B. Maxwell. (Benn.
7s. 6d.)—Do the Fates grow careless over their spinning or do they deliberately tangle the threads of incli- -vidual lives into an intricate mesh ? Mr. Maxwell does not .attempt to solve this problem, but he shows us three people= ,a married couple and a young girl twisted and imprisoned in u grey web of circumstance from which they struggle to ,escape. This case of Bevan Yorke is common enough, but the manner of its telling is remarkable. Mr. Maxwell does not 'concern himself with right or wrong, with black or white ; he . points no moral, he offers no solution. He deliberately surveys .these victims of life and then minutely, deliberately and -accurately he relates their intricate stories. The author has set himself a hard task, which he has accomplished admirably. 'He has taken an ordinary theme and treated it extraordinarily.
• His characters are real people. Even the hysterical Ursula, with all her vagaries and crazes, is never exaggerated ; she is as true to type as Bevan's placid wife. Mr. Maxwell's new 'novel should do much to increase the reputation he has already 'established.
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