16 DECEMBER 1911, Page 23

The Red Lantern. By Edith Wherry. (John Lane. 68)— This

book with its detailed account of certain phases of the Boxer rising cannot fail to interest readers at a moment when the world's eyes are turned so constantly toward affairs in China. The author writes with full knowledge of her facts, and presents an extra- ordinarily vivid picture of life in a missionary station in China, while at the same time the English reader, at any rate, will believe that he haa been afforded a real glimpse into the way in which the mind of the Chinese half-caste works. The plot is a little weak, and the character drawing, except that of the two Eurasians, is not particularly convincing; but even as fiction it is highly readable, while as a statement of existing conditions it is of the very highest interest.