LUD IN THE MIST. By Hope Mirrlees. (Collins. 7s. 6d.)
—Miss Mirrlees, who is an author of distinction, has attempted a difficult task here and meets with success. The story she
relates, fantastic and dreamlike, takes place in a land
unknown long ago and describes how a nation of solid burghers were in danger from their neighbours the fairies. No pretty sprites these, but agitating creatures who set matter-of-fact citizens dreaming, pervert an academy full of young ladies and tempt worthy hucksters to daily with beauty. Fairy fruit which sends men mad is being smuggled into Dorimare : the book relates how the channels of com- munication were discovered, and how, afterwards because one bold man had the courage to ride straight away into Fairyland and return, a new state of things came to be and Dorimare made terms with faery. Miss Mirrlees has succeeded
where so many fail in the realm of fantasy : she has never
allowed it to become merely pretty but maintains a con- sistently tart flavour throughout. Her theme, in fact, is the old and excellent one of the eternal struggle between man's desire to make the most of corporeal existence, and at the same time to snatch at the invisible, the unknown and the spiritual. The book is most beautifully written and stirs the imagination vividly not only with its well-placed descriptive passages, but with its air of sympathetic under standing for human nature's eternal problems.
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