22 SEPTEMBER 1928, Page 32

The Life of Moses (Gollancz, 12s. 6d.) is a great

subject, and Monsieur Edmond Fleg, a distinguished French writer, himself a Jew, might, one would have thought, have been an excellent biographer. But we are disappointed. M. Fleg's method is to take the Old Testament, the Talmud, and all the Hebrew commentators on them both, and to further commentate and elaborate himself. He makes no attempt at an historical interpretation of the times, the ways of thought of the people, or the role which Moses played. The author says the book is a poem, but it is most unlikely that M. Fleg, or anybody else, could ever improve on the poetry of the Old Testament. Perhaps such a life is impossible to write ; at any rate M. Fleg has not succeeded in

doing so. * * * *