19 DECEMBER 1931, Page 26

.. WITHOUT MY CLOAK. By Kate O'Brien. Woodcut . Decorations

by Freda Bone. (Heinemann. 8s. Od.).—Miss Kate O'Brien is already a dramatist of some repute, and in this first novel of Irish life she shows real enterprise. Avoiding the obvious lure of field and folk, she has discovered a forgotten patch of Victorian Ireland and, indeed, in Mellick, the small provincial town of her story, Trollope himself might have spent drowsy years as a post-office official. Honest John, the founder of the Considine fortune, is a vigorous, cheerful character with all the oddities of a self-made man. Belonging to a horse-breeding county in the south, he had prospered as a forage merchant. The lives of his eight sons and daughters are skilfully traced. The little episode of Aunt C,aroline's rebellion in mid-Victorian times, the tragic ,futility of a fluttering gesture which alarmed the entire Coasidine family, is typical in its treatment of the novelist's restraint : and prepares us for trouble in the third generation. This lengthy saga quickens towards the end with romance. ' The Victorian fashion of illustrated fiction is returning, and the richly toned woodcuts and pleasing format give to the book -the qualities of a Christmas present. .