12 MAY 1928, Page 42

More Books of the Week (Con/in:text frot;i, pa g e 733.)

Mr. Dark has been very fair to his bad men in Twelve Bad Men (Hodder and Stoughton, 12s. 6d.). He has, in fact, been too fair to be picturesque. Judge Jeffreys, Cellini, Cesare Borgia, and Louis XI. were all bad enough to be really hateful, but the author has not made them bad enough to be interest- ing. The book is historically interesting but humanly dull. It is surprising to read that Robespierre " would indeed have been almost certain of comfortable and somewhat priggish eminence in Victorian England." Yes, it is surprising and probably true, but somehow disheartening.