BLINDNESS OF HEART. By Violet Colquhoun Bell. (Jonathan Cape. 78.
6d. net.)
This novel is so very nearly extremely successful that its faults cannot but be a source of irritation to the reader. For instance, the author writes with a certain dreadful didactive- ness, which we may suppose she considers justified by the very serious nature of her problem. This does not combine well with the familiarity of an occasional address to the reader
• The ilerak of Soana, By Gerhart Hauptman. London; Martin Seeker, ea. net.] . in the second person plural—a device which always smacks of literary vulgarity. On the other hand; the characterization in the book is distinctly good, and the picture of Society is 'drawn with considerable power. The minds of the young people of the story are analyzed with great discrimination, • and they are truly modern in their attitude to "the old, terrible intimacy of family life, where everything is known, everything discussed, and where nothing is sacred to the :individual." The book suffers a little from looseness of . construction; yet in spite of its many faults the reader, when ,he turns the last page, will feel that in many ways it is a notable performance.
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