A Street in Suburbia. By Edwin W. Pugh. (W. Heinemann.)
—This volume reminds us of the photographs that one sometimes sees in a fifth-rate London street or small provincial town, poorly executed portraits of quite uninteresting people. We do not mean that the author has not shown some skill in his sketches. As there is nothing in literature that corresponds to the camera, the production of these sketches implies a certain amount of ability. But as for the results, they are mean and squalid beyond all description. Because a thing exists, therefore it is within the province of the literary art ; that is the maxim by which Mr. Pugh and his fellows are guided. Where the public of readers is to be found would be a puzzle, did we not remember how Mr. Vincent Crammles found that a real pump and wash-tub on the stage drew audiences that did not care for Shakespeare.
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