There is a case to be made for this book
as the perfect Christmas present. No disrespect is intended to its enduring qualities—quite the reverse, since there is no reason why it should not become a classic in its way, to be edited and annotated by learned dons of a distant generation—but it is exquisitely topical today, when it is difficult to think of anyone who would not be delighted to receive it, and quite easy to think of many who would be much the better for doing so. Miss West has had a difficult task : Mr. Low's pictures are so brilliantly epigrammatic that words seem almost unnecessary. After we have studied his drawings of the Rake in half a dozen different situations—the Rake Gives a Cocktail Party, the Rake Plunges on the Turf, the Rake's Marriage, the Rake's Divorce, the Rake at the End of his Tether, the Rake Finds his Level—we know (or we think we know) as much about his character as there is to be told. It says much for Miss West's skill that she has avoided being pushed into the position of merely writing captions for Mr. Low : she tells us still more about the Rake, and tells it in a delightfully malicious and witty way. No one who has 8s. 6d. to spend will regret investing it in this attrac- tive volume, which is admirably produced by Messrs. Hutchin- son and extremely moderate in its price.
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