16 NOVEMBER 1912, Page 14

In Tripoli the Mysterious (Grant Richards, 7s. 6d. net), Mrs.

Mabel Loomis Todd gives us glimpses of Tripoli as she saw it when accompanying her husband, the American astronomer, to observe the solar eclipses of 1900 and 1903. Her descriptions of what was then but a forgotten backwater of untroubled currents convey a sense of haunting, elusive charm, a noontide melancholy which in retro- spect seems almost conscious of the approaching storm. Though inclined at times to run riot in passages of the ill-digested mysticism so popular for the moment on the other side of the Atlantic, Mrs. Todd none the less succeeds by her sheer vitality, keenness of vision, and happy temperament in imparting a distinct impression of the city's sights, sounds, and smells. The photographs are excellent.