The Farm of the Dagger. By Eden Phillpotts. (George Newnes.
38. 6d.)—Mr. Phillpotts has one of the highest qualities of the novelist, the power of weaving a tale so in accord with a landscape that the human* action and the natural background combine to produce one single intense impression. It is Mr. Hardy's most signal gift, and the disciple has caught something of the master's art. The story is of a family vendetta, the heads of two house- holds sworn to mortal enmity while their children are love-making. The history of the quarrel between John Newcombe and Roger Honeywell is told with much power, and the last scene when the two enemies sit facing each other in death is a grimly dramatic climax. Good, also, is the love-making, and Eve Newcombe is a tenderly drawn heroine. But the real merit of the book is in the sketches of the country folk, with their whimsical philosophy and graphic oddities of phrase. Mr. Hardy's peasants would not have despised the company of Shepherd Pote and Ned Prowse and Dury Hest. The story may now and then halt a little, and certain situations may be conceived in too melodramatic a mood, but the peasant life is always drawn with a shrewd eye and an unfaltering hand. The landscape, also, is so good that it would give distinction to a poorer tale. The eerie melancholy of the great Moor, as well as the exquisite softness which the wanderer can find in its sheltered dells, are portrayed with the intimate affection of a true lover. Mr. Phillpotte's work has in the highest degree that subtle thing, atmosphere, and those who know his. earlier books will need no exhortation to send them to this.
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