The Broken Road. By A. E. W. Mason. (Smith, Elder,
and Co. 6s.)—Mr. Mason in this novel attacks the thorny problem of the English education of our Indian fellow-subjects. In this instance the Indian boy who is sent to enjoy all the advantages of an Eton and Oxford education is the son of the Khan of Chiltistan. Chil- tistan is high up in the hills in the North-Went, and the people are by no means in an advanced stage of civilisation. Shere Ali, the unfortunate hero of the novel, suffers deeply when he returns to Chiltistan from feeling that the Anglo-Indian officials look down on him because of his colour. He resents the orders given him by the Indian Government, though of course had he been an English Civil servant orders quite as emphatic would have been issued to him which he would not have thought questioning. Matters are also complicated by his having fallen in love with an Englishwoman, who to extreme and fascinating beauty adds great shallowness of character. Unfortunately, even her defects do not carry her far enough, for, while accepting wonder- ful pearls from Shere Ali, she never even contemplates the possibility of returning his affection and marrying him. There is, of course, also an English hero in the story ; but be is not a particularly interesting or credible figure ; and the " broken road" of the title, which Linforth lives to continue, does not really play so large a part in the scheme of the completed novel as Mr. Mason probably intended when he first planned the story. Tho reader's -whole interest, as we have indicated above, lies in the character of Shere Ali and the gradual loss of his veneer of civilisation. The rest of the story is only a rather conventional setting to the central figure. Mr. Mason contrives, however, to convey to his readers much of the picturesqueness of India. The prologue is particularly good, and there are episodes in the story itself which are extremely exciting reading.
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