2 APRIL 1927, Page 28

LUCK, AND OTHER STORIES. By Mary Arden. (Cape. 7s. 6d.)—To

claim Miss Arden as Katherine Mans- field's successor is a little premature. Yet the comparison is not so far-fetched as publishers' estimates of their own wares sometimes are. At all events, Miss Arden is a new short- story writer of individual power and charm. Her tales have little incident. They are just portraits or intimate glimpses into the humours and tragedies of everyday life. We are shown the priggish conceit and selfishness of a so-called " idealist," the loneliness and difficulties of a young wife, or the reactions between an old-fashioned mother and her two " modern " daughters. Miss Arden has not yet attained the inevitability of the perfect artist. But she has a true instinct for the revealing trait or situation, and gifts of humour and sympathy that should carry her far.