The Light Reading of our Ancestors (Hutchinson. 15s.) represents half-a-century
of reading on Lord Ernle's part. He has read every novelist in Europe (before 1832 at all events); his zest and his knowledge arc prodigious ; the result is a large and entertaining volume. Only those with ample leisure should attempt it, however, for much of it deals with the veriest dross. Here is the conclusion : "From the Milesian Tales to the Waverley Novels is a period of two thousand years. Throughout those twenty centuries one thread seems to run, sometimes broken, sometimes indistinct, always persistent. It is the gradual perception that life must be presented truly, though not as yet in its whole truth." We would welcome an abridged edition and a companion volume, also severely edited, giving us Lord Ernle's views on the last century, for, as he says, more novels that are worth reading have been written by living writers than were produced in the preceding twenty centuries.
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