Anna of the Fire Towns. By Arnold Bennett. (Chatto and
Windus. 6s.)—Here, too, we have tragedy, but it does not seem to us quite genuine. Anna (the "Five Towns" are the Pottery towns) finds herself on her twenty-first birthday a woman of property. Her father transfers to her some fifty thousand pounds which he has been husbanding for her, without intending, how- ever, that she should really have the control of it. The situation is interesting. How long, we ask, will she put up with this servitude ? Then a lowir declares himself. She has always admired him ; and, indeed, ho is one of the most admirable beings in modern fiction. He loves her for herself, though he has a general notion that she will not have empty hands. Everything seems to promise well, and we begin to ask—Whence is the trouble to come ? Will some flaw be found in the faultless 7—No. Will the wealth disappear P—It is as safe as the Bank. Anna has used a debtor somewhat hardly at her father's bidding, and he kills himself; and the debtor has a son. Pity suddenly turns into an overwhelming love, not, be it remembered, in an un- occupied heart. We refuse to believe. The tragedy is not according to nature, but according to art.
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