27 AUGUST 1927, Page 24

TALES FROM BALZAC. (Nash and Grayson. 7s. 6d. net.) —Five

hundred and fifty large pages, containing a generous . portion of Balzac's shorter novels, or stories. Balzac is an ocean, and the more of him the better ; but he is hardly for review at this time of day. The translations are not dis- ' tinguished ' • they contain few errors, but many infelicities. - It may be maintained that Balzac cared little for surface beauty. Certainly he loses as little by translation as do . Tolstoy or Dickens or Plutarch. The very big men seem to despise graces, or to be too big to see such detail. Yet the " Higher Translation " has made Dostoevsky and the Bible ' into English classics and Balzac might gain readers in England if a really good prose artist would devote some years to making him, too, into an English classic. •