To comment vigorously upon the irritating things of life without
irritating one's listeners is an_unusual feat. .51r-E. Knox in Things That Annoy Me (Methuen, 5s.) very nearly achieves the feat. but not quite. His publishers talk of "a very definite indictment" by "a very shrewd and untsam.-- promising critic," and they are doubtless right. Once or twice, however, the criticisms would be more effective If the indict- ment were less definite. It is disconcerting to find our " Evoe," in his first essay, poking elderly fun at psycho-analysis. we would have expected a less obvious line of attack. The rile of father delivering by the way playful admonitions to the young does not sit well upon the author of These Liberties and Fancy Now. But this is one example, to which we give prominence only because Mr. Knox does: and there is much to atone for it. A Difficult Language is brilliant. •
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