Mr. Paul. By Gertrude Bone. (Jonathan Cape. 12e. 6d. net.)—Mr.
Paul is a country chronicle. It describes a few months in the life of an English village, and as a book it has many characteristics in common with the men and things of which it treats. It is simple, direct, slow-moving. It is neces- sarily very much of the earth earthy, but at the same time heavenly skies are seldom altogether out of sight. There is no hurry or bustle in the activities it records. No one kept late hours in Wiat, and it may safely be predicted that no one will feel compelled to forgo his sleep in order to finish Mr. Paul. As for the story itself, Enoch Paul was a Nonconformist preacher, and such plot as the book can boast has to do with a bet made one February morning at " The Buck i' the Vine," the village inn. But the thing-which really makes Mr. Paul memorable is not the history of this_ bet and its consequences. It is not even the noble and Christ-like ministry of Mr. Paul, in which he is physically vanquished if spiritually triumphant. To the true lover and intimate of the English countryside (and no one else need read it) its great attraction lies rather in the faithful picture it gives of. English rural life. The infinite variety, of natural phenomena which mark the changing seasons are wonderfully observed. But the dialogue of the fieldworkers is even better. Mrs. Bone's country people are neither ideals no caricatures. She has contrived to capture the authentic spirit of Hodge and to transfer him to paper. And by means of not insisting too minutely upon dialectical accuracy she has left a loophole for all counties to claim her " Joes " and " Jerrys " as their own--a justifiable ambition, for who would not be happy to think that they, had inspired Mr. Rod One word must be said in regard to the edition before us. The paper is excellent and the print admirable. The illustrations take the form of woodcuts by Mr. Stephen Bone which are quite delightful and entirely in the spirit of the text.
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