21 APRIL 1928, Page 35

We opened Mr. A. E. Coppard's Contd . Stefan (Golden Cockerel

Press, 16s.) with some misgiving, but read on

through the queer mad story with an increasing pleasure. Here at last, we thought, we had found one of the modern. intellectuals who could spin a good yarn. The events in the little Austrian hotel where the dumb Count Stefan lives are disconnected and jerky, but we do want to know why the odd Count refuses to speak : we want to know what happens next and that (no matter what the height of the brow of the reader or writer) is the test of a good story. Unfortunately the end is weak, for we are left in the air and Count Stefan in a cupboard. But the print is beautiful, the wood-cuts attractive, and three-quarters of the story is streaked with genius.

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