10 MAY 1924, Page 21

In the days of the Victorian novelist this book would

have been the first volume of the life story of its hero. So Mr. Marshall tells us it is now ; but, unfortunately, the modem practice is to publish the introduction to a long story as a complete work, thereby, unless its interest is absorbing, risking the danger of oblivion in the reader before the next sections are available. For it is to be observed that the author in his introductory note promises to provide later volumes—in the plural. It would be unfair to judge of a portion of a novel as though it were a whole, and until we are given the development -of the story we can only say that, while no attempt at subtle psychology is made, the book con- tains a good objective study of a boy's life.