1 JANUARY 1927, Page 21

This Week's Books

" STORY ? God bless you, I have none to tell, Sir," pleaded the Needy Knifegrinder, and his predicament is much the same as that of Mr. Pelham Edgar in presenting to us Henry James : Man and Author (Grant Richards. 12s. 6d.). Indeed, James' life lacks distinctive salience, and Mr. Edgar very wisely, therefore, concentrates in the main on a mmicAy critical and very full analysis of the novelist's work—his early work, his literary criticism, and his major novels. To this the band of James' admirers will eagerly turn. Are there many such ? Can this age stomach the preciosity which can write of a cleanshaved man that " lie spoke, as to cheek and chin, of the matutinal steel ? " No wonder James remained " utterly, insurmountably unsaleable " I

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