In the Valley of Decision. By Edith Wharton. (John Murray.
6s.)—This is a really brilliant book. It is very long, but the six hundred and fifty pages, not at all loosely printed, do not weary one. It does not tell much of a story, but the interest never flags; the characters are not very sharply defined, but they are full of suggestion. The scene is laid in a small Italian principality late in the eighteenth century. The problem is : What will happen when there is a reforming ruler, a corrupt upper class, a priest- hood bent on dominance, and a people acutely conscious of oppression but incapable of freedom ? As we read we are reminded of Vernon Lee, of "John Inglesant," of BocesPeio, and, in one of the most striking passages of the story, of Cagliostro. Might we suggest to Miss Wharton a little more carefulness about detail, even if she should have to cut short her next novel by some hundred pages ? I Professor, even of athletics, could hardly walk, as did the learned Vivaldi, "with several folios under his arm " ; and it is a curious belief that is attributed to "many of the fathers" that "the Neoplatonists were permitted to foreshadow in their teachings the revelation of Christ." Plotinus, founder of the school, was born 203 A.D. and died 270.
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