OTHER NOVELS
middle-class family during the years 1914-1924. Sir Edgar Renner, his wife, Zina a grown-up daughter, her fianc5 John an eighteen year old son, and Wendy a precocious child of about eleven, are basking in the security and sheltered domes- ticity of pre-War England. Suddenly the War is upon them. In tracing the effect on these few people of the War and that of the subsequent peace, even more difficult to endure because there was no outlet for their pent-up nervous energy, Miss Thompson gives a true and vivid account of the general ten- dencies which predominated in England during this period. She has succeeded in drawing a foreshortened picture in excel lent perspective, not an easy thing to do. Her observation of pre-War England (the authoress tells us she was only eleven at the outbreak of the War) is remarkable, and The Hounds of Spring, though perhaps less fresh, is more mature than her earlier novels. It is a pity that she includes unnecessary details, such as the fact that Sir Edgar Renner was a naturalized Austrian, food for a more complex. plot, but of no purport in this story. But this introduction of unessentials, though. inartistic, may be a hopeful sign in a young novelist and we can recommend it as an interesting and delightful addition to the many War-time novels which have been recently published.
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