17 JANUARY 1931, Page 28

In Leo Tolstoy and His Works (Routledge, 6d.), Mr. Aylmer

Maude has performed the difficult task of "introducing" Tolstoy in a pamphlet of some seventy pages. Within such limits it is scarcely possible to do justice both to Tolstoy, the artist, and to Tolstoy, the teacher. Mr. Maude's point of view is well known, and is sufficiently indicated by the fact that he devotes three paragraphs to War and Peace and Anna Karenina and ten pages to a diseussion of Tolstoy's teaching on. Non-Resistance. But as those for whom this introduction is designed may be trusted to tackle the great novels for themselves, and will probably take the didactic works as read, we need not cavil at this distribution of space. The main facts of Tolstoy's life are well and clearly set forth ; and Mr. Maude is an enthusiast who knows how to inspire enthusiasm in his reader. But he should not claim Tolstoy as the founder of the psychological novel. Has he not read Adolphe or Le Rouge et le Noir ? * * * *