The essays which are collected in this volume (Allen and
Unwin, 3s. 6d.) were originally published as a series in -the Fortnightly Review, and bear many of the marks and disad- Vantages of having been written to order and a settled length. Some of the contributors clearly required more space for their statements, others equally clearly could have dm: with less. They are extremely uneven in quality, and ,their, value as a collection is further weakened by the widely different objects which the writers appear to have 'had in mind—despite the preface which states their purpose : " so far at least as the novel in other countries is concerned, they are intended not only to indicate the lines along which the younger writers of fiction have been working since the War, but also to serve as a guide and introduction, for English readers, to 'their most outstanding work." Perhaps the first clause was inserted for the benefit of Mr. Hugh Walpole who, dealing with England, not only does not show whither the novel is going, but employs only the laxest critical standards in describing where it has so far gone : on this subject, it appears, Mr. Walpole's mind runs placidly in circulating-library grooves. Mr. Hamish Miles and Signor Luigi Pirandello are a very great deal better, on France and Italy respectively, and Mr. Erik Mesterton is extremely hopeful about developments in Scandinavia. Mr. D. S. Mirsky has few fears for the future of the novel in Russia, though study of some of the works about which he is so enthusiastic renders one slightly sus- picious of his judgement of those one has not seen. Mr. Milton Waldman has nothing very original to say of America, and Herr Wasserman quite understandably was not too optimistic about possibilities in Germany. Herr Wasserman and Mr. V. S. Pritchett, who writes interestingly on Spain, are the only contributors to show an awareness of a com- parative critical standard, and the book is consequently more or less without point. Which is a pity, as this could have been an -extremely valuable collection.
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