SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Notice in this column does not necessarily preclude subscinemt review] Friday Nights. By Edward Garnett. (Cape. 75. 6d.)—It is odd that a veteran who has a reputation for literary judgment, who is famed for being one of the first in this country to acclaim the Russian novelists and to discover Conrad and W. H. Hudson, should allow this book to represent him. He is guilty of all the loose adjectives, and the invocatory paren- theses, which we too often associate with the pulpit ; while the relative pronoun is a stumbling-block which all his years of literary practice have not taught him to avoid. As examples- of his use of words, we may quote : " And his doctrine , . . is nevertheless like an electric current traversing the current generalisations . . ." ; " that protean force that creates the endless recurrence " ; " vast drama of nature's myriad activities " ; " vast ranges of nature's laws " ; " vast regions of spiritual life." The surprising thing is that in his quotations he always gives something rich and pregnant, his choice showing that he does possess that judgment for which he is noted. We can therefore only apply to him his own quotation from Tchehov, " If one is not mistaken in the main, one is mistaken in details," and leave the disquieting puzzle to the reader. The later chapters on the art of fiction writing are, however, so helpful that we feel they might be offered as a gospel to all practising novelists.
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