21 MAY 1904, Page 20

always just flavoured his work to become very much more

pro- nounced. Harold Dnnville, the actor who is the hero of the book, is certainly an intolerable fellow, but he does not quite deserve the hard measure dealt out to him by Mr. Norris. To fail in politics, in love, and, worst of all, in strength of mind, is aaloniitous, but to choose to be burnt to death in order to escape from a tedious existence is a fate from which a man should save his dearest enemy, let alone the puppet of his own brain. To say that the book is readable is to say that it is written by Mr. Norris ; but it is really unkind of him to leave his audience in a state of such gloomy dreariness when they turn the last page.