TALES. By August Strindberg. (Chatto and Windus. 3s. 6d.)—This is
a very handsome addition to the Phoenix Library. The tales were published in 1903 after Strindberg had written The Father, Miss Julie and There are Crimes and Crimes. There is in them the same morbid idealism that is in the plays, the prevailing theme being the progress of man through sin, suffering and trial to serenity and selflessness. About this theme are woven a variety of circumstances in each story, sonic of them from the realm of Fairyland, some of them from real life, some of them from the traditional history of Sweden, and some of them from all three mixed. The book might almost be described as a complement in morbidity to the wholesomeness of Hans Andersen, and is, of course, worth a conspicuous place in any library of fables. The translator, Mr. J. Potts, has done his work well, and only once or twice in the book does a sense of awkwardness due to him arise.
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