17 SEPTEMBER 1932, Page 24

PHATE's WIFE. By Jean Damase. (Duckworth. 7s. 64, —A French

first novel which is in some ways a modern version of the story of our Lord. The fate of a prophet in a Syrian province is intermingled with Captain Godillard's intrigue with the Governor's wife. M. Damase knows his country well : but, with Captain Godillard, we doubt if " dramas of an earlier epoch " should be mixed with " the games of the Western world:'