. PERSIA
By O. A. Merritt-Hawkes
Mrs. Merritt-Hawkes, on her own acknowledgement, neither speaks nor writes Persian well, nor has she made a systematic study of Persian political history, even during the present century ; but despite these limitations she has produced an engrossing and illuminating book (Nicholson and Watson, 18s.), which was the more worth writing because of the preVions 'absence of any comprehensive up-to-date guide-book to modern Persia. Her book is sub-titled Romance and Reality,' and she . has admirably blended these two qualities in her honest and impartial account, thOugh there is perhaps_ a little, stno much emphasis on `flomatice ' 'in ' her account of te present' regime, whose objects may be as estimable as she claims, but whose methods are open to criticism from a liberal standpoint to a much greater degree than her benevolent references to it would allow the reader to suppose : but apart from this she has few illusions, and her account of the country and its institu- tions is entirely free from the spurious colouring of the con- ventional, impressionistic traveller. She was not content to, form her opinions in the " small understandable 'Persia" siThich is inhabited by Europeans and forms an unreliable baiis for so many travellers' tales, but made an effort to Penetrate into the big, incomprehensible and, at the moment, slightly antagonistic one " which is inhabited by Persians. She visited prisons, schools, and hospitals as well as the usual markets, palaces, and theatres, and travelled through Many of the more remote provinces of the Persian Empire instead of sticking to the conventional routes. To everything that she saw she brought a keen intelligence, a mind free from prejudices, and a welcome common sense. Hor book is certainly the i.best account • available of modern Persia, and its; most serious blemishes, are a number of defective and inconsistent transliterations and spellings of Persian words.
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