SERENUS and OTHER STORIES OF THE PAST AND PRESENT. By
Jules Lemaitre. Translated by A. W. Evans. (Elkin Mathews and Marrot, Ltd. 2s. 6d.)— Here is that rare thing, a translation from the French carried out by a competent craftsman whose English shows that he has a feeling for the slightly affected gravity and simplicity of the original. Jules Lemaitre is not Anatole France, but he is much more than a mere imitator : his story of the rich young dilettante who in Nero's day drifted into association with Christians, and finally suffered for it, can compare with the greater artist's work in point of scholarship and easily handled knowledge. And if the irony recalls France
also, it is only because it is the irony of Voltaire as well, which sets out with sober malice how Serenus scandalized the devout by a comfortable suicide when he was due for rough martyr- dom. Yet in the circumstances of the time he was buried along with the martyrs. The results of his subsequent exhuma- tion and the properties which attached to his remains make the sting of this story, which though the first is not at all certainly the best in this very cheaply priced little volume of
good work. J
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