THE TRADER'S WIFE. By Jean Kenyon Mackenzie. (Hodder and Stoughton.
6s.)—This appears to be Miss Mackenzie's first book, but if it is it must be the fruit of much writing and burning of what was written by the author, for the artistic method suggests an old hand. The simplicity of the story is deceptive. The personality of this American poetess, one of the first women to accompany her husband to a trading port in Africa, both attracts and repels, as does a character in real life ; nor is there any artificial contrast of her altruism with the villainy of her husband or of the slaver de Sopo, whose slaves she finally frees ; for she is at the time under the influence of a fever of which she subse- quently dies. The light and shadow occur where they occur in real life, and the illustrations, by Andre Devaneeau, are as restrained and as expressive as the writing. The publishers are to be thanked for giving us a dust jacket free from any kind of advertisement.
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