20 APRIL 1944, Page 22

THIS is an unusual and attractive anthology very judiciously com-

piled and not too full of matter. It is a book for a lover and savourer of words, for all the extracts, whether from Bacon, James Joyce, the Book of Job, Robert Burton or Sir Thomas Browne, have this in common that they fall delightfully on the ear and flatter the eye. This is not surprising, seeing that this compilation was made by Miss Edith Sitwell to soothe to sleep the sleepless. It contains prose and verse and a certain number of French, Chinese and Japanese extracts, the latter two in English or French transla- tion. The French authors quoted are Baudelaire, Gerard de Nerval. Stephane Mallarme, Remy de Gourmont and Judith Gautier. These names alone are a sufficient indication of the book's special and exquisite character.