PIRACY. By Michael Arlen. (Collins. 7s. 6d. net.)— Mr. Arlen's
novel is queerly dissatisfying. It is irritating. And yet it must be spoken of respectfully ; and it must be spoken of vaguely because there is something in it that fails to come out. It would seem as if Mr. Arlen were immature and dark, piratical and interesting—like Marley, his hero. There is no unity in his structure or style. Pamela Star, the mysterious beauty, the plumber's daughter, fabulously rich and only known to the world by a portrait of John's, suddenly found by 1VIarlay in a chinchilla coat in Down Street, is too unannounced. Marlay himself is incomplete. Will the sequel that the publishers advertise remedy this ? Mr. Arlen's style, too, is incomplete. He has not shed Henry James. Ile has not even shed Wilde, and so many of his epigrams are stale that we doubt the originality of those that we do not recognize. Mr. Arlen is clever and inclined to " snappy " comments on very contemporary life. He is too fond of dragging in literary references. He has not, indeed, shed the essay. If he is ever clear of these faults and of Society ladies, and if he can learn precision, we may find him to be a great novelist. In the meantime, he is worth reading.
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