ABOVE AND BELOW. By R. D. Dorthy. (Seeker. 7s. 6d.)
—Several times lately the events of a single day have been assembled to make a full-length novel, and now the author of Above find Below has made a further experiment in the art of compression and expressionism. She (for we suspect femininity) introduces us to one heroine in the afternoon, and arranges that we shall see the last of one hero after dinner on the same night. In the few hours between this ave et vale we are given the histories above and below the surface of three married couples and two bachelors, whose lives touch one another's at various angles. Considered as a piece of mechanism the book is interesting : there is no superfluity or sensa- tionalism, and we are told enough of all the characters to stimulate our interest in them. In work of this kind a certain jerkiness of construction is inevitable, but there are too many parentheses. The book should be regarded as a gallant experiment, as such it is interesting and does not entirely fail.
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