2 JUNE 1928, Page 31

CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA. By Giovanni Verga. (Cape. 7s. 6d.)—Mr. D. H.

Lawrence has here translated a number of short :stories by the famous Sicilian writer Who died in 1922. They deal, simply and baldly, with the stark realities of peasant life—love, lust, jealousy and revenge. But Mr. Lawrence, who contributes an interesting biographical and critical preface, is tight in claiming that Verga's characters are less " merely physically and materially functioning " than Zola's, with which they are often compared.