For a hundred years Jane Austen hal proved one of
the most attractive and difficult of the classics to illustrate. As yet no artist has produced the precise combination of wit, shrewdness, and that elegant integrity of expression demanded by Jane Austen's incomparable prose.. Vera Willoughby, who illustrates Pride and Prejudice (Peter Davies, 12s. 6d.), is the latest to fail gallantly in the attempt. If these drawings do not reach the very high standard of her lovely decorations for The Memoirs of Lady Vane, one can only blame Jane for her elusiveness, and perhaps Peter Davies for trying to produce a lengthy de luxe book for 12s. M. Of Vera Willoughby's great technical merits there can be no doubt. The format of this book is by no means good and coinpares unfivourably with that of Gerald Howe's 10s.6d. edition of Persuasion, published last year. * *
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