16 MARCH 1929, Page 28

TO. WHAT PURPOSE ? By G. Cusack and F. Fleetwood.

(Stanley Paul. 7s. 6d.)—This is a novel with a purpose, but happily the moral, so far as it is explicitly stated, is confined to the preface. The joint authors attribute our modern restlessness to the fact that our young people have discarded guidance from without and have not yet attained to wisdom from within. The story itself is an extremely convincing and interesting study of the daughter of an old-fashioned squire. In the words of one of her conventional relatives, against whom she rebels, she is " wiser than Nature and stronger than God." Yet Philippa is fundamentally a fine and charming character, and -her 'difficulties are sympathetically presented through a series of admirably natural incidents, beginning with her home life in Devonshire and ending on the Lcindon stage. The varied minor characters—especially Aunt Irene, who acts as mediator between the older and younger generations--are equally lifelike. The " problem " of post-War youth is here treated, not with the customary sensationalism, but with restraint, sincerity, and real insight.