The Devourers. By A. Vivanti Chartres. (W. Heinemann. 6s.) —It
is perhaps straining a point for an author to present to his readers two children of genius in the same book ; but if a novel is to concern mother, daughter, and granddaughter, something startling must be invented to keep alive the reader's interest in the family. Nancy Avory is half Italian and half an English woman (the noun must be allowed, though when the book opens Nancy is a baby). She becomes in the course of the story a poet of world-wide renown. Later on her daughter, Anne Marie, becomes a violinist of equal fame, and " devours" her mother's genius as her mother had "devoured" the time, thought, and energies of an earlier generation. In spite of its occasional absurdity, the novel is interesting, the characters, if they are often exasperating, being always lifelike and vividly portrayed. The book ends with the birth of a new "devourer," Anne Marie's
baby, about whom the reader is told nothing, although it is obvious that the author intends this infant eventually to stop Anne Marie's violin-playing. Thus four generations are engaged in the story, which may be taken to be a solemn warning to the world of the danger of having children of genius. Most people, however, are not exposed to this trial.
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