5 AUGUST 1922, Page 23

THE LONDON MERCURY.

NE London Mercury contains an interesting study of Ibsen by Signor Croce, who evidently detests Ibsen's attitude towards life but has a profound admiration for his technique. Mrs.

Squire writes with knowledge and enthusiasm on "The Novels of Archibald Marshall," which have, we fancy, more readers in England than she seems to think, though they have been dis- covered of late years by the American public. Mr. George Moore relates "A Conversation in Elmuy Street" between himself and an American visitor on various topics. Here is a fragment :—

"So you see, Mr. Husband, we arc without hope of a Renais- sance of illiteracy. It would seem that every epoch is repre- sented by a word : the thirteenth century by filioque, the Napoleonic empire by organization, the twentieth century by education. And upon my word I would welcome a reversion to theology."

Miss Susan Miles parodies two of our very modern novelists— Miss Dorothy Richardson is, of course, one of them. Miss I. A.

Williams prints some letters that passed between Wordsworth, Mrs. Elemans, and Robert Perceval Graves, mainly in the years

1833-34. Mr. Theodore Maynard's poem "Exile," written from San Francisco in praise of London, is melodious and thoughtful. London to him, as to many other exiles, is "a heavenly symbol and the sum of all the world can give."