18 OCTOBER 1940, Page 24

Shorter Notices

Tins is a welcome addition to the Oxford Editions of Standard Authors. It is illustrated with a charming drawing by Adrian Stokes of Alice Meynell in 1879: not the rather overpowering prophetess of the later portraits, but a dark young girl with pointed, sad, exciting features, a hat cocked rather pathetically on one side, and a bold ear. Mrs. Meynell's reputation has swung from exaggerated heights to exaggerated depths. The author of the tiresome " Shepherdess " was also the author at the very end' of her career of the magnificently sombre lines on De Quincey, " Everlasting Farewells."