Some Books on Italy .
Boors on Italy will always have a definite attraction for the reading public, and present-day writers are still keen to record their impressions ; but, in many cases, the angle of observation has changed. The new Risorgimento interests the majority more than the old story, but both the old story and the new aspirations are dealt with in the books before us.
The Unknown Italy of Mr. Reynolds-Ball is ,Piedmont.
says, rightly, that travellers rush through the cradle of modern Italy without stopping to admire the beautiful snow- capped mountains and fertile valleys, and without caring for the traditions, manners, and customs that are racy of the soil. He-points out that in many places only Piedmontese is spoken and, perhaps, a little French, Italian being practically unknown. The book is pleasantly written and well illustrated.
Professor C.T. Foil/UK a well-known authority on. Italian art and antiquities, has written an interesting book in which old stories, and descriptions of places, and works of art, are Varied by anecdotes concerning proMinent people_ in the Italy of to-day. , It is. typical- of the attitude of -the modern writer that the last " hone of Italy " that he mentions is a living one, which, " like the travertino of the Colosseum, or the fabric of the Pantheon, will only become firmer 'and
harder as time goes on. - This stone is Beaite -Mussolini- ' the man sent by GOd.' " The book is finely illustrated by, reproductions of the author's water-colour drawings.
Heine's Italian Travel Sketches, translated by Miss Sharp, appear in a new edition. Mr. Cobbett's illustrations are charming in themselves, but they have nothing of the elusive, fantastic spirit that is so typical of the writing of the German poet : they represent the places spoken of by Heine, but are not seen with his eyes.
Daly from End to End, by Mr. Warner Allen, purports to be a psychological guide-book, and as such will certainly be welcomed by maiiytravelleia in spite of the pooi opiniOn that the author holds concerning them. Travelling, he says, is a lost art ; he
despises the globe-trotter, who will become even more absurd
when travel in the air develciPS. . For have leisure tO enjOYtravel as an adventure, this book should proye invaluable. The places visited live again; for there is much 'Critical obser- vation, as well as atmosphere, in these pages. We banquet in the Rome of the Borgias, we wander about Umbria and admire the Greek temples in Sicily ; but Naples is dismissed. with leis notice than she deserVes, while Pompeii is described as rather a vulgar town, as artificial and ridiculous aa Brighton ! Among:the mountain passes of Lombardy the author revisits the scene of his War service and introduces us to the hardy Alpirii ; and from the War to Mussolini is but a step. As in old days all roads were said to lead to Rome, in the present day, any subject will lead to the Duce.. Mr. Allen, with his knowledge of Italy, and with his intimate knowledge of foreign affairs, is certainly competent to enlighten us. I suspect that he agrees with the driver at Ravenna; who said-that Mussolini was a 'ars° stuperido: _ Sir- Frank Fox is . occupied with the political situation, and strikes the keynote of Italy To-day in his preface, saying. that he is not interested in museums but in the Fascists, who are. experimenting with a philosophy as old as the hills, and yet new to our generation. He sketches the great old story Of Rome and . decadence, and insists on the post-War Misery cif Italy, with finances depleted, the people discontented' and in danger of falling a prey to the International Communists. of Moscow. He tells the story of the adoption of the old lictor's 'bundle of staves with a protruding axe—the Fasces, that have given their name to the piirty— and asserts that the axe is to clear the way rather than to execute justice, and the staves are to direct and to measure as much as to scourge.
Mussolini is, of course, not alone in his work of carving out a new State. General Primo de Rivera, in Spain, is accom- plishing a great work of regeneration, and in far aivay central Arabia, Ibn Sa'ud, the Wahabi ruler, is building up an empire in a desert. What will happen when these pioneers give place to others ? Sir Frank Fox has much to say with regard to the future 'of Fascism, and his. book-is one thatleannot he ignored by anyone interested in the evolution of post-War Italy and its relation to the rest of Europe.
BEATRICE ERSKINE.
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